Tulsi Prasad Bhattarai, Chief Officer of the Rasuwa Customs Office, said that the goods were sent to China this morning.
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The Rasuwagadhi border crossing has been operational since Thursday after about six months. The Rasuwagadhi border crossing was blocked after the bridge over the Lhende River connecting China and Nepal was washed away by floods last Ashar.
The Rasuwagadhi border crossing had been closed since Asad 24 after the flood washed away the concrete bridge. The border crossing was opened after China temporarily built a bailey bridge over the Lhende River. Tulsi Prasad Bhattarai, chief officer of the Rasuwa Customs Office, said that the goods were sent to China in the morning.
‘Empty containers have been sent to China to receive goods in the morning,’ he said. ‘The containers that were stopped from there are coming, how many will come and go, we will know in the evening.’ When the border crossing was closed at the beginning of Dashain, electric vehicles, fruits and clothes could not come.
Before the flood, about a hundred containers used to cross from Rasuwagadhi every day and the same number of goods used to come and go. After Asad 24, the border crossing has been deserted. Prepared goods, apples and other fruits were imported through this border crossing. Most electric vehicles used to enter through this border crossing.
Bhattarai, the chief officer of the Rasuwa Customs Office, said that about 21 billion rupees in revenue has been lost since the border was closed (including the Pushko border). He said that even though a small number of freight vehicles entered Nepal from other border crossings after the border was closed, it has not had a major impact on the revenue collection at the Rasuwa border crossing. After the border is opened, freight vehicles carrying goods from there will come to the Rasuwa Customs yard. Then they will pass customs inspection and be sent.
He said that since the Bailey Bridge is one-way and narrow, the same number of containers will come and the same number will not be able to be sent there. Vehicles with higher load-carrying capacity will also not come due to the bridge. The road from Rasuwagadhi border crossing to Syafrubensi, about 16 kilometers long, was blocked for a long time due to landslides at more than a dozen places in Ashar last year.
Due to this, there is still a problem in moving freight vehicles. There is no alternative to deploying traffic police at various places. The road is narrow. The road section is being upgraded with a grant from the Chinese government.
The road is still in one-way operation in some places. The Rasuwa Customs had a revenue collection target of Rs 3.8 billion in Poush. ‘Since Poush has already passed half a month, the target is certain to not be met,’ Bhattarai said, ‘As soon as the border crossing is opened, goods will not arrive and revenue will be collected.’
Now, businessmen have to open a letter of credit (L/C) to import goods and go to China to load the goods.
