For years, thousands of Nepali citizens crossed into nearby Indian towns daily to buy essential items, drawn by lower prices and better availability. Many Nepali citizens serving in Indian Army, as well as pensioners who came to collect their pension, also bought household goods from Indian markets, making this cross-border retail movement an important support for both traders in Uttarakhand and families on the Nepal side.Nepal’s Baitadi and Darchula districts border Uttarakhand’s Pithoragarh along Kali river, while Kanchanpur is linked to Champawat and Udham Singh Nagar, giving the clampdown a direct impact on trade and movement across several Uttarakhand border markets.Although customs duty rules existed earlier, enforcement had remained relaxed, allowing this retail activity to flourish. Traders said the new government had now tightened checks and begun ensuring stricter collection of duty, with announcements in Nepali border towns that citizens would have to pay customs duty on goods worth more than Rs 100 bought from India.“After enforcement of the duty, business has been affected,” Bharat Singh Bhandari said. The chairman of the traders union in Banbasa, Champawat, added that more than 50 Nepali citizens previously carried goods worth around Rs 60 lakh into Nepal by cycle every day, but that flow has now sharply reduced. “People are carrying fewer goods and in smaller volumes,” Bharat Singh Bhandari said, adding that customs officials had given some relief on marriage-related purchases from Indian markets if buyers produced a marriage card.Purendra Bisht, in charge of the customs office at Jhulaghat in Nepal, said the duty was being enforced on goods worth more than Rs 100 bought from Indian markets, and added that the rule was being applied at Darchula and Jhulaghat entry points.The tighter duty collection has also come amid a wider push by Nepal to strengthen surveillance along the Indo-Nepal border. Nepal has deployed 240 additional armed personnel in Kailali, Kanchanpur and Baitadi districts, adjoining the Indian border, in a move being linked to efforts to curb human trafficking and illegal movement of goods. Earlier, 12 to 15 personnel were posted at a checkpoint, but that number has now gone up to around 30, almost doubling surveillance at border points.
