Although it is the festival time, traders in Birgunj city are awaiting customers. The retailers express worry over the declining market here, as the customers throng beyond the border, Raxaul, India.
The customers are going to Raxaul, an Indian city on the border, reasoning cheaper prices of goods there. The shopkeepers in Birgunj city are however bound to clear customs which results in dearer prices of goods.
To the concern of the Nepali traders, clothes, food items, electronic and electrical goods are imported easily by individual customers from Raxaul.
A retailer Dipak Sharraf said the transaction was declining much in Birgunj due to high customs duty. "If this trend continues, half of the shops in Birgunj will shut down," he warned.
Similarly, a clothes trader Pankaj Rauniyar said that Dashain is dreary while there was hustle and bustle during the last Dashain. The transaction has sharply declined.
Another retailer Bikash Kumar Agrawal shared that the purchase of refrigerator, TV, washing machine decreased by 70 percent as compared to the festival last year. He suggested the government bring reform in economic policy to restore retail transactions that are dwindling day by day.
The traders in Birgunj city, the trade hub of the country, are for the government's serious intervention to restore the economy, which was already dented much by the COVID-19.
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