Ministry of Commerce and Supplies not in priority of big parties

Country's supply system has been affected badly after India imposed 'undeclared' blockade since Monday following protest by Madhesi parties for the past one and half months. This has brought supply of petroleum products to a grinding halt. "The stock of petroleum products in 1988 could meet the demand for a month. But now the stock cannot meet demand for even a week. This shows our supply system and management has not been taken care of properly," former chief secretary Leela Mani Paudyal said. "MoCS has never been the choice of major political parties." Lekhraj Bhatta is the only leader from top three political parties who have helmed the supplies ministry since 2006. Bhatta is a UCPN (Maoist) leader. The ministry was led mostly by leaders of Madhes-based parties over the past decade. "Our trade and commerce is weak because the supplies ministry has never been in priority of big parties," a retired secretary who worked with over a dozen supplies ministers said. Nepal's trade deficit has widened multifold over the past decade. The country's import is nine times higher than its export. Though MoCS is an important ministry, the government has been allocating negligible budget to it. It allocated Rs 2.36 billion to MoCS in the current fiscal year, which is about 13 times less than Rs 32 billion allocated to the Ministry of Defense in the current fiscal year. MoCS was allocated mere Rs 5.29 billion in three fiscal years including 2015/16. The Ministry of Commerce and Supplies has to deal with external trade and work for economic diplomacy. But nobody bothers about appointing leaders with expertise at the helm of the ministry, experts say. "The ministry has very little budget. Also it doesn't have many corporations. It is one of the reasons why it is not among the sought after ministries," trade expert Posh Raj Pandey said. "Those who assume supplies portfolio neither know what economic diplomacy is; neither they have vision to drive the economy forward." He also said commerce is the second important ministry after finance in many countries. In countries like India, the commerce portfolio is given to senior leaders, he added. President of Sadbhawana Party Rajendra Mahato, Co-chairman of Tarai Madesh Loktantrik Party Hridayesh Tripathi, President of Federal Socialist Forum Nepal (FSFN) Upendra Yadav, Vijay Kumar Yadav of FSFN, Shyam Sundar Gupta of Sadbhawana Party (Anandidevi) and a Madhesi leader Bishnu Chaudhary led MoCS after 2006. Interestingly, these ministers are obstructing supplies by staging protest at entry points along Nepal-India border. MoCS officials and trade experts say it is an unethical act. Ministry of Industry, Commerce and Supply was split into MoCS and Ministry of Industry 15 years ago. Leaders of the major political parties like Purna Bahadur Khadka, Krishna Prasad Sitaula and Shankar Pokhrel led the ministry before it was split.