Traders seek revision in list of items for Nathu La trade

GANGTOK: Claiming that the historic border trade at Nathu la has become a 'non-profitable' business for the Indian traders, a traders' body has urged the Centre to expand the existing list of of items so that the annual trade could become a viable and profitable business.

The Centre should urgently review the list of items to be exported by the Indian traders through Renqinggang mart in the Tibetan Autonomous Region (TAR) by identifying those goods which are in demand by the consumers in TAR so that our traders could reap benefit from the opening of the annual trade on the Sino-Indian frontier at Nathu la, India-China Traders Association of Sikkim (ICTAS) vice president D D Mundhra said.

Till the list of items are not not revised, the Indian traders would be doing business with 'zero profit' and for some traders, the ongoing border trade could turn out to be a loss making venture due to high transportation costs and other expenses, he said.

Besides seeking revision in the items on the export list, Mundhra further demanded that the government's ban on the export of non-basmati rice should be waived in the case of the Sino-India border trade as the cereal was high on the demand list of the traders from TAR in China.

The ICTAS vice president further sought the permission to sale those goods imported from China at the border trade throughout our country so that the traders could make reasonable profit as the existing norm for consumption of such goods in Sikkim was impacting on the volume of the imported goods and the margin of our traders.