Banke, March 21
Indian customs officials have stopped 140 petroleum-laden tankers headed to Nepal through the Rupaidiha border crossing, officials say. The online entry system of the customs office has been out of order for the last two days, they said.
Nepalgunj customs officer Sharad Kumar KC informed that Indian officials have halted more than a dozen trucks loaded with fruits and vegetables in the last two days. According to him, although there has been an agreement between the Nepali and Indian officials to allow trucks ferrying fruits and vegetables to pass by recording their movement offline, trucks with petroleum cannot be allowed to enter Nepal in such a manner.
“We have been coordinating with the Indian customs since Wednesday. We have information that they have problems with the server and they are trying to fix it,” he said. KC added that the Indian customs officials have obstructed the movement of fuel tankers and other trucks on many occasions citing problems with their servers.
Indian customs officials state that they need to seek the permission of the customs deputy commissioner for clearing goods worth more than one million, and that can only be done online as the deputy commissioner’s office is in Lucknow.
Chief of Nepal Oil Corporation’s Nepalgunj depot Abhisekh Kumar Thakur said initiatives have been taken to bring the fuel tankers into Nepal. “We are trying to bring the tankers as soon as possible,” he reiterated.
According to him, NOC’s depot in Nepalgunj has enough diesel stock to last a week and petrol for three days.
RSS
