Nepal asks China to help control gold smuggling

DHULIKHEL, OCT 24 -

Nepali customs officials have urged their Chinese counterparts to help control the rising gold smuggling taking place along the border.

Speaking at the 26th annual meeting of Nepal-China customs officials which started in Dhulikhel on Tuesday, Nepali officials requested that urgent action be taken to prevent gold smuggling which they said had sullied the image of the two countries.

Officials from both sides of the border have reached a consensus on working together to control cross-border smuggling and promote exports, according to Nepali officials participating in the meeting.

Damodar Regmi, deputy director general of the Customs Department is leading the Nepali team while Liu Jiang, director of the Anti-Smuggling Department of Chinese customs, is the head of the six-member Chinese team.

Meanwhile, chief of Tatopani Customs Mimansha Adhikari and chief of Kerung Customs Shambu Bahadur Khadka urged the Chinese side to facilitate trade between the two sides.

Currently, exporters have to unload their goods at Miteri Bridge at Tatopani and transfer them to China by porter. This practice is partly due to China’s doubts about the standard of Nepali goods and quarantine procedures.

During the meeting, the two sides agreed to make efforts to allow delivery of Nepali good directly to Khasa without unloading them at Miteri Bridge and Chinese goods to be brought to Tatopani directly from Khasa.

During the meeting, the Chinese delegation affirmed that they were ready to let more goods from Nepal enter China.

Source: The Kathmandu Post