Chinese authorities impose tax on Indian goods


Gangtok, May 10: The sixth edition of India-China border trade via Nathula has suffered a setback with the Chinese authorities imposing tax on Indian goods for the cross-border trade. The Indian traders could not participate in the trade since Thursday last after the Chinese authorities at Nathula border gate did not clear their goods on May 4. The Chinese authorities allegedly told the Indian traders that they did not recognise the list of items approved by the Indian Government.

This was communicated formally to DC (East) D Anandan, who is also the border-trade pass issuing authority, yesterday by the newly formed Indo-China Border Trade (Sikkim) Association at his office in DAC (East), Sichey. The traders also shared their experiences of Wednesday (May 4) with the DC, Commerce and Industries Director K Kafley and Deputy Secretary Sumita Pradhan. They said the mart (Donqingang) in-charge of China side informed that they would impose tax per kilogram on the approved items to be exported to China.

The DC said the custom duties could not be imposed on border trade items as per the bilateral agreement of 2006 between India and China when the historic Nathula border trade was resumed. “The border trade has been going on smoothly for the past five years, with no such issue of customs duty being raised, and we have received no official communication stating that customs duty will be imposed,” he said.

The DC assured the traders that the State Commerce and Industries secretary would be writing to the Ministry of External Affairs on the issue of customs duty and not recognising the exportable list of Indian items. Since it’s an international subject, the Indian Government would take up the issue with the Chinese Government and ask why our goods were stopped, he said.

In the meantime, the DC suggested the traders to keep the channel of communication with their border-trade counterparts open and resume trade if the Chinese authorities settle the present matter. (UNI)