Call to focus on power exports to India

KATHMANDU, Aug 11:

The private sector has urged the government to focus on power exports to India, which, according to them, is one of the best ways to bring Nepal's increasing trade deficit with the country into control.

Organizing a discussion with Nepal's Ambassador to India Deep Kumar Upadhyay on the current status of bilateral trade between the two nations, officials of the Federation of Nepalese Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FNCCI) said that special focus had to be given to power exports to India to cut Nepal's trade gap with India.

FNCCI officials also emphasized that Nepal needed to minimize the import of diesel -- a major role-player in the increasing of the trade deficit between the nations.

During the discussion, FNCCI President Pashupati Murarka urged Upadhyay to hold talks with the Indian government to increase the pace of construction of the Amalekhgunj-Raxual pipeline. Murarka said the Indian government had to include trade-friendly export and import provisions in the 'Nepal-India Treaty of Trade' which is slated to be reviewed on October 2016.

Similarly, former FNCCI president Chandi Raj Dhakal called for the expediting of the ongoing construction process of transmission lines and said that the prospect for new transmission lines should be looked into. "Energy export to India is the only medium that can reduce the country's trade deficit with India," Dhakal said, adding: "We should also encourage Indian investors to invest in Nepal's energy sector."

FNCCI officials also said that Nepali products -- mostly agriculture exports -- have been facing problems at quarantine stations because of which Nepali traders have been finding it difficult to export these goods to India.

The Nepali envoy Upadhyay committed that he would help the private sector increase exports of Nepali goods to India. Upadhyay also urged the private sector to compile a list of their concrete problems and possible measures. Upadhyay said that the Indian government had always been positive toward Nepal's development. "To tighten and strengthen Indo-Nepal economic relations is my first priority."

Source: Republica