October 31: Nepal's foreign trade has decreased by 18 per cent in the first three months of the current fiscal year. Foreign trade has been affected due to the government's policy of discouraging imports and tightening of bank loans for imports due to pressure on foreign exchange reserves.

According to the data released by the Department of Customs, Nepal’s foreign trade amounted to Rs 442.81 billion till mid-October of the current fiscal year. This is 18.54 per cent less than the volume of foreign trade during the corresponding period of the previous year. In the same period of the previous year, the size of Nepal's foreign trade was equal to Rs 543.57 billion. The size of foreign trade decreased as both imports and exports decreased.

According to the department, from last mid-July to mid-October, the import decreased by 16.2 per cent compared to the previous year and remained at Rs 499 billion. Similarly, the previous year in July-August, the export was worth Rs 65.5 billion, but this year it has decreased by 35.71 per cent to Rs 41.82 billion.

Due to the decrease in imports, the country's trade deficit has also decreased. By mid-October 2022, the trade deficit declined by 13.13 per cent to Rs 359 billion compared to last year, the department said. The government has collected revenue of Rs 96.61 billion from imports till October. Since last year, Nepal Rastra Bank has adopted a policy of tightening imports due to the lack of liquidity in banks and pressure on foreign exchange reserves

To reduce imports, the NRB reduced the import quota of gold and silver and also implemented the provision of keeping a cash margin for opening letter of credit.

The government had banned the import of 10 luxury items for four months during last summer. The government lifted the ban on most of the items in August except the import of cars, jeeps, vans, mobiles worth more than $300, liquor and motorcycles with a capacity of more than 150 ccs was banned. 

According to the department, until mid-October of the current year, petroleum products tops the list of imported goods. During this period, diesel worth Rs 29.81 billion, petrol worth Rs 18.44 and LPG gas worth Rs 14.94 billion have been imported into the country.

The import of raw materials of palm and soybean oil is also high. According to the statistics of the department, unrefined palm oil worth Rs 14.48 billion and crude soybean oil worth Rs 9.97 billion were imported till mid-October.