April 24: Twenty two trucks carrying tea from Nepal were allowed to enter West Bengal by the Indian Customs Office on Tuesday night after holding them at the Indian checkpoint across Mechi for six days.
These trucks were carrying 2,200 tons of tea produced in Nepal.
The Indian Customs Office, Panitanki, stopped the Nepali trucks at the checkpoint last Thursday demanding 100 per cent lab test certificate along with quality assurance papers. The trucks were stopped at Panitanki for almost a week.
Before this, only 5 to 25 per cent of tea samples used to be tested and released. However, the Panitanki Customs last week refused customs clearance of the tea saying that new provisions were implemented.
A delegation led by Aditya Parajuli, president of the Nepal Tea Producers Association, met Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal and asked him to take the initiative to resolve the problem in tea export and also urged for a long-term solution.
Due to the joint initiative of the prime minister, the Department of Customs as well as the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Indian Customs Office called the customs agents at 9:30 PM on Tuesday night and released the truck carrying tea.
Ram Prasad Regmi, head of the Mechi customs office, also confirmed that 22 vehicles carrying tea were released from Panitanki Customs. He said, "When I informally met with Panitanki customs, thet informed that Nepali tea was released on the basis of verbal order from above."
Tea is the second most exported item from Nepal. The export of tea from Nepal, however, has decreased in the ninth months of the current fiscal year. The monetary value of ready-made tea exported from Nepal amounted to Rs 3 billion. Traders informed that the market of Nepali tea is decreasing due to the Indian blockade, the price of tea falling in the market and the lack of auctions.
Nepal exported 9.83 million kilograms of tea worth Rs 2.66 billion in the 9 months of the current year. Looking at the data, compared to last year, tea exports decreased by 3.5 million kg amounting to Rs 476.76 million.
