Mizzima News (www.mizzima.com)

Moreh, November 14, 02: Worried over increasing illegal trade across the Indo-Burma border, the Indian Union Commerce Ministry, has decided to close down three gates at Moreh point in Manipur, bordering with Burma. The Commerce Ministry's move came in the wake of complaints lodged by several trade organizations in the region. There are four gates at Moreh bordering Burma to facilitate trade with the South East Asian countries. But, now only one gate will be in operation.

The Commerce Ministry sources today informed that the move has been initiated to channelise the legal trade. It may be mentioned here that several trade organizations and the Burmese Government had been demanding the Centre to close down the illegal gates for which the Commerce Ministry has taken the step. Mizzima has learnt that the Commerce Ministry has taken a serious note to non-availability of Letter of Credit (LoC) system, which has sealed down the legal trade between India and Burma.

The sources further stated that though Moreh has become a focal point of export and import between India and Burma after the trade agreement, signed in 1994, the region has not been successful in generating revenue due to the illegal trade.

"A huge chunk of money generated from the border trade, has been siphoned off resulting in loss of revenue," they said, adding that the insurgent groups operating along the border have imposed heavy taxes on the traders.

Moreover, the statistics reveal that the growth of export between India and Burma is less than import, due to some restrictions imposed by the Burmese Junta. In this context, the sources said that the Indian central government's move to close down the gates, would help in restricting the entry of third country goods into the Region, which has already created a major problem in the North East India.

Commenting on poor export growth rate in the North East despite vast potential, they revealed that the on going militancy has remained a major problem affecting the trade. Moreover, infrastructure is not up to the mark for which exporters are facing severe hardship in running their trade.

Meanwhile, North East Federation on International Trade (NEFIT) has welcomed the move of the Indian Commerce Ministry to close down the illegal gates at the Moreh trade point.

The NEFIT president, Mr. R C Agarwal informed that this would help the exporters of the North East in accelerating their business with Burma. He further expressed the hope that the export growth would be higher as the traders had to pay a huge sum of money during their export. "We had also submitted a memoranda to the Commerce Ministry to close down the illegal gates earlier," he informed.

Year-wise volume of trade through Moreh point (Amount in rupees)

Year                  Export                       Import
1999-2000        3,25,65,827            3,67,97,316
2000-2001        5,29,107                19,38,523
 2001-2002       1,25,08,345            8,29,71,255

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