Magh 9, Kathmandu. In the six months of the current financial year, the country’s total international trade has decreased by 22 percent. As the overall trade decreased, its impact was also seen in the customs revenue.
Till the end of the current financial year, the total international trade of Nepal has reached 8 trillion 73 billion 47 billion rupees. It is 1 trillion 41 billion more than the previous month and 2 trillion 447 million rupees less than the same period last year.
Last year, during the review period, the total international trade was 11 trillion 18 billion 18 billion rupees. During the review period, while the import decreased by 20 percent compared to last year, the export also decreased by 32 percent.
Till January, Nepal has imported goods worth 7 trillion 92 billion 66 crore rupees. While last year such import was equal to 9 trillion 99 billion 34 crore rupees.
Nepal, which exported goods worth 1 trillion 18 billion last year, has exported goods worth only 80 billion 80 million rupees during the review period of the current financial year.
Due to the contraction in the overall trade, the trade deficit has also decreased by one and a half billion compared to last year, according to the Customs Department. The trade deficit which was Rs 8 trillion 80 billion 49 crore last year has been limited to Rs 7 trillion 11 billion 85 crore during the review period. Which is less by 19.15 percent.
The total customs revenue collection is limited to one trillion 82 billion 84 million rupees till January of the potato year. Which is less than last year by 74 billion 76 million rupees. Last year, up to December, customs revenue was collected at 2.57 billion 60 billion.
What happened to many imports?
According to the customs department, diesel is the most valuable import during the 6 months of the financial year. Nepal has imported diesel worth 70 billion 10 million rupees till now.
Petrol worth 33 billion 53 crore rupees has been imported and cooking gas is the third most imported item.
Until now, Nepal has imported cooking gas worth 28 billion 20 million rupees. Similarly, when crude soybean oil worth 23 billion was imported, 19.22 billion rupees were spent on the purchase of iron raw materials (sponge iron).
Major export items
In the list of the main items exported from Nepal in these 6 months, the share of soybean and mam oil is at the forefront. During this period, Nepal has exported refined soybean oil worth 8 billion 98 million rupees.
Processed palm oil worth 7.34 billion rupees has been exported, while carpets and textiles worth 5.46 billion rupees have also been exported by Nepal.
Similarly, cardamom is the fifth most exported commodity from Nepal. Nepal has exported cardamom worth 3.73 billion rupees from July to December alone.
According to the Customs Department, during this period, while Nepal has international trade with 152 countries, trade with 127 countries is in loss, while trade with 25 countries is profitable.
