GANGTOK, July 5 (PTI): The annual border trade at Nathu La on the Sino-Indian frontier has apparently failed to evoke interest among Indian traders this year as the centre has not revised the list of export items.
The volume of the annual bilateral trade has been poor at about Rs 0.7 million in the first five weeks since its opening on May 19, official sources said here.
According to the sources, officials are concerned with the apparent lack of interest among Indian traders, who have reported losses on export items currently listed by the centre.
While the value of traded goods on both sides has been much below expectation at about Rs 0.7 million, Indian traders have also shown reluctance to visit the Renquingang Mart in the Tibet Autonomous Region (TAR) to sell their products citing non-profitability.
The number of Indian traders visiting the Renquingang Mart in TAR on a daily basis has been seven at the most, while on some other days a mere one to two, they lamented.
In an alarming indication that the annual border trade has become inviable for Indian traders due to the non-revision of the trade list by the centre, a good number of traders who had participated in the annual trade in the past have not bothered to obtain the mandatory pass from the district authorities this year, the sources said.
The Indo-Chinese Traders Association of Sikkim (ICTAS) Vice-President DD Mundhra admitted that he has not obtained the trade pass this year as the border trade did not make sense in terms of profitability with the centre failing to revise and upgrade the list of items for export from India.
"Most of the goods in the present 29 items in the export list from India are obsolete and outdated with the traders from TAR not seeking import of these products, barring rice, tea and utensils," he said.
Mundhra said the Centre should revise the trade list on a priority basis to boost the bilateral trade at Nathu La.
The present norm that the imported products from TAR be sold in Sikkim only should be relaxed so that Indian traders could import Chinese goods in bulk for sale throughout the country, he said.
The relaxation in the restriction on sale of the imported goods throughout the country would enable the traders to make some profit which, otherwise was not possible given the small size of the population of the Himalayan state, the ICTAS vice-president said.
