Jhapa, June 20

Mechi Customs Office has incurred loss of more than Rs two billion in revenue during the lockdown. It has collected only Rs one billion in revenue so far.

The office had set the target to collect Rs 3.24 billion in revenue in the last three months. But, the office has collected around Rs one billion revenue in the set time, said Mechi Customs Chief Dhrubaraj Bisworkarma.

“Mechi Customs Office has set the target to collect little over Rs 12 billion in a year with Rs one billion on a monthly basis.

But, the lockdown has dealt a severe blow to our target,” said Biswokarma. He said revenue started falling ever since the COVID cases were detected in China.

Various agricultural products such as tea, broom, cardamom, ginger, herbs, zinc sheets, handicraft items and pulse have been exported to India and other countries via the customs office. Tea from Ilam is exported to India and many European countries.

Tea is mostly exported to Germany.

A version of this article appears in e-paper on June 21, 2020, of The Himalayan Times.