Dhangadhi, February 24:

Smuggling is on the rise in Kailali district, as most of the chhoti (small) custom offices, which were displaced during conflict, have not yet been reestablished.

Out of seven chhoti customs displaced from the border areas of Kailali during conflict, five customs have yet to be reestablished. Chhoti customs at Bardawa, Kanari, Sonaphana, Bhandari and Ghuinyaghat have not been reestablished, while Satti chhoti custom and Prithvipur chhoti customs have been reestablished. These chhoti customs were merged into District Custom Office (DCO) Kailali during conflict due to security reasons.

Except petroleum products, most of other goods are illegally smuggled from India into Nepal from Kailali. Due to the rise in smuggling, DCO Kailali has not been able to collect revenue as targeted in the current fiscal year. These chhoti customs contribute about 30 per cent of the total revenue collection of Kailali district.

Laxmi Raj Joshi, acting chief of Kailali DCO, said due to lack of necessary physical infrastructure, these chhoti customs could not be reestablished.

“We don’t have necessary infrastructure and have not been allocated additional budget, too. We have informed the concerned department regarding this problem”, he said.

Similarly the ‘Custom Revenue Patrolling’, which used to be conducted from main custom office in the bordering areas some half a decade ago, has also not been restarted because of which illegal theft and smuggling along the border areas of Kailali is on the rise, DCO claimed.

“A patrolling team of up to five armed security men used to patrol the border areas. The patrolling team had proved to be a great help in curbing theft and smuggling in the region. However, it was removed during the conflict period,” Joshi informed. “The employees of custom offices could not patrol on the border areas without arms.”

Meanwhile, DCO Kailali has collected revenue of Rs 170 million till mid February of the current fiscal year though its target was to collect Rs 250 million.

The Satti and Prithvipur chhoti customs, which were reestablished only last month, collected Rs 2,00,000 revenue within a month, a source said.