August 9: Sales of automobile spare parts have increased in districts that share border with India following the government's decision to impose lockdown last year to control the spread of Covid-19 infection. The sales of spare parts have apparently increased due to the decline in illegal trade in the border areas.

The government had imposed a four-month-long shutdown from March 2020 to prevent infection from spreading. Since then, trade in the border areas has flourished.

“As the smuggling has decreased due to the closure of the border, goods have also been sent to the places near the border to cater to the demand,” said Krishna Dulal, president of Nepal Automobile Dealers Association (NADA).

Entrepreneurs say that automobile spare parts sellers, who have been operating in the border area for a few months after July last year, have placed good orders. Sunil Rijal, an automobile parts dealer and general secretary of NADA, says that there was no demand for authorized goods in the previous year as unauthorized spare parts were entering from the Indian market due to open border.

"In previous years, the demand for automobile parts in the border areas was negligible," he said, “But the demand was good during the lockdown.”

Stating that the demand for automobile parts had increased by 20 to 50 percent at the border during the lockdown, he said that the authorized trade has increased as the illegal movement has decreased at the border.

Moreover, he said that illegal imports have been stopped with the tightening of checkpoints and taxes have also been increased for goods entering through authorized channels. He said that the customs fraud of goods should be stopped in the coming days by managing the checkpoints.

“If the government stops the unauthorized business by imposing tax on the goods, the custom fraud will also be reduced. Due to this, the business will also flourish and government revenue will also increase,” said Rijal.