Nepali traders, who had been halting imports from China through the Tatopani customs point for the last 12 days, resumed the business from Sunday after Chinese customs agents and a Chinese transport company agreed to

marginally reduce the transportation fare and porter’s

fee, which were increased recently.

At the meeting between Chinese traders and Nepali traders led by Nil Kantha Chaulagain, president of Nepal Trans-Himalayan Border Commerce Association, the Chinese side agreed to reduce the fair to some extent.

As per the agreement, the charge for a large container has been fixed at 1,300 yuan and that for a small container has been set at 800 yuan. Earlier, the agents had unilaterally hiked the rates to 2,500 yuan and 1,700 yuan for large and small containers, respectively. Before the hike, the charges were 1000 yuan and 600 yuan, respectively.

The Nepali side had demanded that the old charges be maintained, but “the Chinese were reluctant to accept our proposal and agreed to marginally decrease the charges,” said Nepali traders who participated at the meeting.

Chaulagain said they accepted the Chinese proposal to immediately resume the trade, but additional dialogues will continue.

The Chinese side had said they increased the charges after the Chinese government scrapped “bonus” being offered to customs agents. The Nepali side, however, was not ready to “compensate” them by accepting a fare hike. The Khasa Customs employs agents from the private sector to clear goods.

Due to the halt in trading activity, around 300 containers laden with Nepal-bound goods had been stuck in Khasa. This also affected the government’s revenue collection. The Tatopani Customs Office, which usually collects Rs 10 million in revenues every day on an average, was only able to collect Rs 500,000 a day during the closure, according to the customs office, which is one of the busiest customs points of the country.