June 3: The Ministry of Home Affairs has instructed district administrations not to obstruct vehicles used for transporting goods along the highways. The Home Ministry has written letters to twenty district administration offices  instructing them to facilitate transportation of goods. 

The district administration offices of Jhapa, Morang, Bara, Parsa, Rupandehi, Kapilvastu, Banke and those along the major border points have been asked to make arrangements for the transportation and supply of goods to and fro the destination.

Earlier, the government had banned the entry of all vehicles except the ones carrying essential goods into the Kathmandu Valley to control the surge of COVID-19 cases.

Vehicles carrying industrial products even with the customs clearance were not allowed to enter the Kathmandu Valley. The restrictive measures were stepped up following the sharp rise in COVID-19 cases in the valley.

The government had banned the transportation of all items except 21 essential items including food, medicine, medical supplies and equipment.

Subodh Kumar Gupta, chairman of the Birgunj chapter of Federation of Nepalese Chambers of Commerce and Industry said that they had to pay detention fees for containers for about a week. “The supply of industrial raw materials and products have been affected after the police administration stopped transport vehicles at checkpoints and highways. The instructions from the Home Ministry would help to ease the supply chain,” said Gupta. 

The ministry has directed the district administration offices to allow trucks and containers carrying industrial raw materials to reach their destinations. The customs offices had been issuing customs clearance to vehicles carrying goods other than the essential ones as well. Although there was no problem in customs clearance, those vehicles faced problems while transporting the goods. Harihar Poudel, chief customs officer of Birgunj Customs Point, said that this issue has also been resolved with the initiative taken by the Home Ministry.

The Birgunj chapter of FNCCI had written to the Home Secretary on Tuesday, June 1, urging him to remove the obstruction on transportation of goods. "Their concern has been addressed for now," said Gupta.