The date for Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba’s official visit to India will be fixed in consultations with the embassies of the two countries, Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Krishna Bahadur Mahara has said.

Informing the lawmakers about the outcome of the visit at Parliament on Wednesday, Mahara said he had raised with his Indian counterpart Sushma Swaraj several contemporary political issues and concerns related to various issues that matter to Nepal. 

Ambassadors of Nepal and India will consult their respective foreign ministries and fix the dates of the PM’s visit to India, said Mahara, who returned home from New Delhi on Tuesday. One of the objectives of his visit was to lay a ground for the PM’s India visit. 

Expediting Indian-funded projects in Nepal, problems faced by Nepalis in exchanging banned Indian currencies were also figured in the meeting with Indian Minister for Foreign Affairs Swaraj, Mahara explained. 

He said that a meeting between the two countries at the secretary level will take place soon to sort out the difficulties Nepal is likely to face following the implementation of Goods and Services Tax in India. The Nepali side has been saying that the new tax regime in India will make items imported from third counties via India more expensive.

The Ministry of Commerce has already sent a letter to the Indian side, describing its impacts on Nepal’s imports and exports to the third countries. 

Dozens of Nepal-bound cargo are said to have been stranded on the Nepal-India border due to confusion over the new tax regime in India. This has already caused a slowdown in movement of goods to and from third 

countries. 

“High-level discussion was held for forwarding issues related to development regarding petroleum pipeline between the two countries,” Mahara said. “Extensive discussion was held on possible impacts on markets along the Nepal-India border after to the new Indian tax system came into effect recently and to resolve the problem over exchange of Indian currencies soon.” 

DPM Mahara told the parliamentarians that they had also discussed about bringing LPG bullets into Nepal soon as well as BIMSTEC meeting that Nepal is set host in near future. “Minister Swaraj will visit Nepal for the occasion,” he said. He also informed the House about his briefing to New Delhi-based ‘non-resident ambassadors accredited to Nepal’ for their support for Nepal’s candidature for UN Human Rights Council membership.