Nepal-India transit treat will be amended: Foreign Minister

Kathmandu, May 6:

Minister for Foreign Affairs Pradeep Kumar Gyawali has said that the Nepal-India Transit Treaty would be amended in order to incorporate cross-border railways and inland waterways to be developed in the near future.

In a landmark decision, Nepali Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli and his Indian counterpart Narendra Modi had agreed to develop the Raxaul-Kathmandu Railway and inland waterways for the movement of the people, cargo and providing additional access to the sea for Nepal.

The government has given high priority to lessening the trade deficit with India and facilitating Nepali producers in exporting their products to India and third countries, said Gyawali, while speaking at an interaction on 'Nepal-India trade promotion', organised by the Nepal Chamber of Commerce (NCC) on Sunday.

According to him, the two neighbours are also signing a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) for the Raxaul-Kathmandu Railway Project during Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi's upcoming Nepal visit.

Indian PM Modi is scheduled to come to Nepal on March 11 on a 3-day official visit at the invitation of PM Oli.

During the visit of PM Oli to India, the latter had agreed to construct a new electric railway line connecting the border city of Raxaul in India with Kathmandu with Indian financial support.

 According to a joint statement issued by both the prime ministers, as the first step, it was agreed that India would, in consultation with Nepal, carry out preparatory survey work within one year, and the two sides would finalise the implementation and funding modalities of the project based on the Detailed Project Report (DPR).

FM Gyawali said that the government wanted to implement the past agreements with India since a multitude of pacts and promises were made with India in the past, but their execution was very poor.

"We also want to implement those agreements and find new avenues and areas of cooperation, therefore, various treaties such as trade and transit treaties will be amended," he said.

He also said that both the countries would soon hold talks to finalise the Power Trade Treaty.

India had issued discriminatory cross-border power trade guidelines in 2016, which restricts the private sector and third country hydropower developers in Nepal from exporting power to India.

The guidelines say that only those companies owned by the Indian government or the public sector or private companies that have 51 per cent or higher Indian equity can export electricity to India.

Gyawali said that the guideline could discourage Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) in hydropower in Nepal.

"Similarly, we have urged India to build quarantine labs near the Nepal-India borders because it takes days for a quarantine test, which is discouraging the export of agricultural goods to India," he said.

President of Nepal Chamber of Commerce (NCC) Rajesh Kazi Shrestha urged the government to make arrangements to operate the Bishakhapattnam port as an alternative to the Kolkata port.

He also said that the Banglabandh port, an inland port in northern Bangladesh, which can provide trade link with India, Nepal and Bhutan, should be used under the BBIN (Bangladesh-Bhutan-India-Nepal) initiative.

Likewise, he requested curbing the export of raw medicinal plants.

Published in The Rising Nepal daily on 7 May 2018.