Guwahati: At a conference held at the NICCI Secretariat in Naxal, Kathmandu, representatives from the Nepal-India Chambers of Commerce & Industry (NICCI) and North Eastern Development Finance Corporation Ltd. (NEDFi) discussed connectivity status and projects.

According to a statement released by NICI, President of NICCI Shreejana Rana stressed the possibilities, opportunities, and problems in trade in many industries between the two nations during the meeting. She said that collaboration in these areas may be advantageous to investors as well as the governments of both nations. She cited the enormous potential in infrastructure projects, hydropower projects, SMEs in agriculture and tourism, among other areas.

The Commerce and Transit Committee's chairman, Rajan Sharma, emphasised the difficulties involved in trade and transit. He stated, "At the moment, Indian clearing agencies hold the custodian right of Nepali commodities. This is a significant issue since the legal laws transfer responsibility to the clearing agencies, which leads to problems because the clearing agents are unable to recover payment from Nepalese importers and are instead free to move the issue.

With agency collaboration between the Custom House Agent (CHA) and Nepali freight forwards, the provisions should include and hold accountable Nepali freight forwarders. Between India and Nepal, there is a useless electronic cargo tracking system that costs at least INR 3400 for each container. The Nepali importers should not be required to pay such fees for tracing the transit cargo within Indian territory since it is too expensive.

Batu Lamichhane, the chairman of the energy committee, also emphasised the state of power production and the situation of power trading between India and Nepal. According to Lamichhane, Nepal generates up to 3339 MW of energy during the wet season, of which Nepal had a surplus of 1205 MW in 2022. He said that Nepal has aspirations to create more than 10,000 MW of power during the next ten years and that during the most recent monsoon season, NEA exported 364 MW to India.