December 6: The electronic cargo tracking system (ECTS), which was introduced to reduce the transportation cost of Nepal’s overseas trade, has ironically become the reason for price hike.

Government authorities had implemented the ECTS while implementing the transshipment system to remove paperworks at Kolkata and Visakhapatman ports of India.

The ECTS was implemented on cargo containers transported through railways in order to prevent misuse of goods brought from overseas. Although this system, which uses GPS tracking, was launched to facilitate transport of goods, it has become the reason for transportation cost to shoot up.

The ECTS is fixed on containers loaded on trains from the sea ports of India to track their location. But Nepali importers say that the location of the cargo containers can be obtained from the website of Container Corporation of India Limited (CONCOR) even without the use of ECTS.

Importer Suresh Rungata says the ECTS has become a means for the transporter company to charge fare arbitrarily.

“There is no need of ECTS in rail route because the containers can be tracked from CONCOR’s website, which is authorized to transport the goods through the railway route,” says Rungata.

The ECTS was introduced to remove paper work at Indian ports. This system was expected to reduce the transportation cost by 50 percent. Although the paper works have been removed, the transportation cost has increased by 50 percent instead.

The company authorized to transport the goods charges IRs 3,400 per container. Although the status of the containers can be obtained from the website, the company has been charging fare for every container. Nepali importers complain that this provision has needlessly increased the transportation cost