The government is promoting the need to pay customs duty at the customs point when buying goods worth more than Rs 100 from the border Indian market. The Armed Police Force is using microphones in the border area to inform that customs duty has been made mandatory on goods worth more than Rs 100. Security personnel and customs officials have tightened the inspection of goods at the border. This has reduced shopping at the border market. After the restrictions on Nepal, the border Indian markets have started to become deserted. 

The Sunauli market in Rupandehi, India, has not been crowded for a week. Apart from those traveling between Nepal and India for other purposes, the number of people who cross the border to buy goods has decreased. The Sunauli market, which is always bustling with consumers who reach Sunauli from various districts for shopping, is now deserted. Harihar Poudel, head of the Bhairahawa Customs Office, said that the restrictions at the border were imposed to discourage those who buy goods in large quantities without paying duty for household purposes. 

‘Due to the restrictions, the number of Nepali consumers who used to go to Indian markets for shopping has started to decrease significantly,’ said Poudel. ‘Smuggling, which used to be carried through the border checkpoint several times a day, has stopped.’ 

Poudel claims that there has also been a positive impact on controlling revenue leakage. There is no problem in bringing goods purchased in normal quantities from the border Indian market. Customs officials and security personnel deployed at the checkpoint are only strict on goods brought for commercial purposes in the name of household expenses. Employees of Hari Om General Stores in Sunauli, India, said that the number of Nepali customers has decreased by 75 percent compared to before. Traders in Sunauli are disappointed with the restrictions imposed at the border checkpoint. Traders in Bhairahawa are excited, saying that legitimate transactions will be encouraged in the country. 

Prachin Thay, central president of the Customs Agents Federation Nepal, said that the restrictions imposed at the checkpoint have discouraged illegal transactions. ‘Such a stricture is beneficial for Nepal and India,’ he said, ‘With the strictures imposed at the border, the trade in retail items at the customs has started increasing and the customs warehouses have started filling up.’ He said that the strictures will be imposed at the main border, but there have been complaints that smugglers are taking advantage of the open borders on both sides. Thaab said that along with the strictures imposed at the border, it is necessary to search the shops and warehouses of Nepali businessmen. He said that it is necessary to search the shops and warehouses of Nepali businessmen as well as those who are smuggling goods from the Indian market along the border by purchasing them without duty and without bills, which is what encourages smuggling.’ Local consumers have complained that the prices of daily necessities have increased significantly in grocery and retail shops in Bhairahawa and surrounding areas after the strictures were imposed. Netra Prasad Acharya, President of the Siddhartha Chamber of Commerce and Industry, said that the strictures imposed at the border have started having a positive impact on domestic businesses. ‘If any businessman increases prices without reason, the market should be monitored regularly and action should be taken,’ he said, ‘We are ready to support the government. The general public should not be in trouble at the border checkpoint. Commercial transactions cannot be carried out without due diligence.’

The restrictions imposed on the border checkpoint at the Fareni market, which has been open for two days a week on the Indian side of the Meudihawa area of ​​Siddharthanagar Municipality, have also led to a very small number of Nepali consumers reaching the market. The restrictions at the checkpoint have been continued and there have been no obstacles or disputes in the checks, said SP Nawaraj Bohara, Chief of the Armed Police Force No. 27 Gulma Rupandehi. ‘In some cases, practical aspects have been considered,’ Bohara said, ‘People go to the Fareni market only after evening for local shopping. The number of people who go to shop from far away is not as high as before.’

The restrictions on the checkpoint have reduced the number of people going to India to buy daily necessities from areas including Biratnagar in Morang. India's Panitanki, Naxalbari, Siliguri and Jogbani border posts are not as bustling as they used to be. 'If the restrictions are strictly enforced at the border posts towards Nepal, our markets will definitely dry up. Nepali consumers have already stopped coming,' said Raghubir Gupta, a trader at the Indian border market Panitanki. Tapan Ghosh, another trader at Panitanki, said that trade has started to decline as the movement of Nepali consumers has decreased. 

Locals have become angry, saying that it is impractical to impose taxes on ordinary purchases when prices are rising in the market. 

Some have also started complaining about the behavior of security personnel. 'Inflation is such that goods could be bought for two paisa less, now that too has stopped,' said a housewife from Mechinagar, 'Security personnel have started harassing people even when they bring goods for their homes.'

Demand to stop organized smuggling

Tension has arisen at the border posts in the border districts after customs duty was made mandatory on goods worth more than 100 rupees imported from India for various purposes. After criticism of this decision, the customs office at the border is allowing household goods to be imported. However, they are tightening the rules on goods imported with the aim of evading customs. Although the strictness of paying customs duty on goods worth more than Rs 100 has discouraged Nepali consumers from shopping in the Indian market, it has not stopped them. Every day, a large number of people go to the Indian market of Raxaul, which is connected to the country's main border, Birgunj, to shop. Consumers claim that they are not aware of the government's strictness at the border.

It is common to see arguments between consumers and the police, who demand that they be able to bring in any goods easily, as in the past. Despite the strictness imposed on the general public, there is no control over the organized smuggling of clothes and daily necessities from India to Nepal, which is not controlled by stakeholders.

Senior Vice President of the Birgunj Chamber of Commerce and Industry Madhav Rajpal says that the government's strictness is welcome and will make the economy of the bordering Nepali market dynamic. ‘Such strictness will increase the trade of clothes and daily necessities in the case of Birgunj,’ he said, ‘However, it will have no meaning if organized smuggling is not controlled on the 1,700-kilometer-long open border with India.’ 

Customs duty on goods worth more than 100 rupees, tension at the border post

Although there are obstacles for the general public, wheelchair users and women to bring daily necessities, the new rule will have no meaning until smuggling through the open border at night without the eyes of security personnel is controlled. He suggests that an environment should be created where such goods can be legally imported by collecting customs duty and value added tax equivalent to the GST levied in India. Rajpal says that revenue can also be collected by collecting income tax and other fees from goods that are legally imported in this way. 

The border restrictions have been tightened for years, and the 'destination weddings' held in Nepal's border hotels from Bihar, Uttar Pradesh and West Bengal in India have also stopped, which will also affect Nepal's hotel and tourism industry, Rajpal said. The armed police deployed at the border have been making people pay mandatory customs duty if they are found bringing goods worth more than Rs 100. This restriction has reduced the crowd at the border.

Armed Police Force spokesperson DSP Mohan Niraula claims that there has been some reduction in the crowd at the border. 'There is no longer the wave of people coming from across the border to shop,' he said. 'We are making those who deliberately buy a lot of goods pay customs duty.'

Nepal Police is working to control illegal smuggling, says District Police Parsa spokesperson DSP Hari Bahadur Basnet. Deepak Agnirath, a journalist from Raxaul, an Indian city on the border with Birgunj, says that the excitement of Raxaul Bazaar has recently diminished due to the influx of Nepali customers. He said that although there are some shoppers in Raxaul right now because it is the wedding season, the excitement may wane once the season ends. 

Although the new rule directly affects the general Nepali consumer, it is not right for organized smuggling of clothes from India to Nepal to be left unchecked, says Agnirath. ‘Locals of Indian and Nepali villages on the border are directly involved in cloth smuggling,’ he said. ‘Only if this can be stopped will the Nepal government achieve its desired objective.’ 

Although the new rule does not immediately increase revenue collection, its long-term impact is gradually visible, claims an officer of the Birgunj Customs Office. ‘This rule increases local trade in the Nepali market, improves the economy in the domestic market,’ said the officer. ‘There has been an increase in awareness among the general consumer that domestic goods should be promoted and that shopping should be done in the domestic market only.’ 

He said that the rule published in the gazette in 2080 is currently being strictly implemented. He said that the current restrictions will save the common Nepali consumer from being cheated and unsafe in the Indian market and from the mistreatment by the police at the border.

Demand for facilitation

After the government tightened the import of goods worth more than one hundred rupees from the Nepal-India border, the residents of the border area have demanded facilitation in this regard. The border residents have complained that they have been buying goods from the Indian market for household purposes for years and are being hit by the sudden restrictions.

Due to cultural ties across the border, citizens from both sides import and export goods from each other's countries. Currently, even when vegetables, pulses, and household goods for household purposes are brought in, security personnel at the border seize them and 
Munim Lal Gupta of Palhinandan Rural Municipality said that there is a situation where people are forced to pay customs duty or are forced to pay customs duty. 'Even when we bring sugar, soap, sugar, and tea leaves for our homes, the armed police stop us at the border,' Gupta said, 'We are forced to go to the Indian market to bring goods in the hope of saving some money.' The administration has tightened the restrictions, saying that the same person has been bringing and selling goods for the tenth time in a day at the border, pretending to be for household purposes. 

After tightening the restrictions at the border, people's representatives have demanded that the district security personnel facilitate the actual bringing of goods for homes and necessary goods for weddings and weddings. However, people who transport goods multiple times in a day with the intention of smuggling should be identified and followed according to customs rules, said House of Representatives member Bikram Khanal. 

'Nepal-India relations are the relationship of bread and daughter. "It is not possible to be strict by stopping even ordinary gifts brought when visiting relatives and visiting," Khanal said, "However, those who repeatedly sell and smuggle goods in the name of family members should be taken to task and customs duties should be paid."

There are complaints that it is impractical for ordinary people coming from other checkpoints in the district except Maheshpur customs to cross a long distance to clear their goods. SP Govinda Khati of Armed Police Force No. 26 Battalion, Nawalparasi, who has been working as per the instructions of the center, said.

Banke Chief District Officer Dil Kumar Tamang said that strict checks have been carried out at the Jamunah checkpoint on the Nepal-India border to control smuggling. He said that security agencies have intensified patrol operations in recent days by increasing surveillance. Tamang said that the existing customs laws have been strictly implemented as per the instructions of the government. He clarified that although the system of mandatory customs clearance for bringing goods worth more than Rs 100 has been in place for a long time, special emphasis has been placed on its implementation now.