Sikkim: Nathu-La trade likely to kick-start from May 1

Gangtok, April 26, 2013

The District Collectorate (East) AK Singth on April 24 said that the process for issuance of passes for the Nathu-La border trade has begun and 222 traders have applied for the post so far.

The border trade is likely to start from May 1 for this season.

“We have received a total of 222 applications from the traders who want to do the business this year and these applications are under verification. The passess will be issued once verification is over,” Singh said, adding that the traders have been asked to submit their applications.

The DC office in Gangtok is the competent authority to issue the passes to traders who are interested to carry out trade through Nathu-La border.

This is the eight year of the trade between two Asian giants after it was resumed in 2006 after a gap of 44 years.

The official sources from the Commerce and Industries department here said that the official opening of the trade this time would be done by the senior official of Directorate General of the Foreign Trade on May 1. “For this, we have already written a letter to the office of the DGFT and waiting for their confirmation,” a senior official said.

On the other hand, the traders this year are hopeful that the trade would go out smoothly.

“Last year frequent landslides had disrupted the trade, we hope this time the trade will be good both the sides, a trader in Gangtok remarked.

The last year’s trade had been beneficial for both the countries, as India registered an export volume at Rs 59881780 and the import recorded was Rs 10146622.

Last year DGFT had included five new items for import and seven more items for export in the list thereby increasing the item of import to 20 and export to 36.

(Courtesy: Sikkim Express)