A very ‘cosy’ arrangement between exporters, importers and the officials manning the international border of the North-East states with countries like Bangladesh and Myanmar is resulting in huge losses of revenue to the government.

While official records show exports from this region amounting to a few hundred crores of rupees, actual exports are worth several times more. The government thus loses more than it earns in terms of revenue. According to officials belonging to the Union Ministry of Commerce exports from the North-East in 1999-2000 were in the range of Rs. 340 crore, most of which were destined for Myanmar and Bangladesh with whom the people of this region have traditional trade links. The year before, exports stood at Rs. 220 crore. These figures, however, are just a fraction of the actual quantum of exports from this region, most of them being illegal. An Indian Institute of Foreign Trade (IIFT), New Delhi, estimate puts the figure of illegal trade from here to Myanmar and Bangladesh at more than Rs. 3,000 crore per year. Citing an example of the nexus between exporters and officials manning the border trading posts, the Commerce Ministry officials point out that there is a loss of foreign exchange to the tune of Rs. 51 crore in the Dawki centre in Meghalaya bordering Bangladesh. Coal is the chief export item through this centre.

There is large-scale overloading of coal in the trucks that pass through this post and the officials merely turn a blind eye to it – of course, for a commission. Every truck that passes through the checkgates here has about 5 MT of excess coal which is never accounted for.

The officials point out that five to ten per cent overloading or underloading is acceptable but not the kind being witnessed here. Yet another manner of evading taxation that has been adopted by the coal exporters is by understanding the value of their items. The officials say that while the letter of credit rate opens at (US) $40 per MT. The deals on paper are signed at just $30 per MT. The excess payment is collected by the exporters in gold or Bangladeshi taka from their partners across the border. Though mutual trust is the sine qua non behind this arrangement, there has been instances of the Bangladeshi importers reneging on their promise. "The exporters cannot take legal recourse since the payment is illegal anyway," the officials say. 

One way of solving the problem of overloading in trucks, the officials say, is to have more weighbridges. But it is the problem of weighbridges that has led to the ‘going down’ of the Rs. 80 crore Dawki coal export route, they say. Another export route, through Sutarkandi in Assam’s Karimganj district, has also suffered because of the prevailing deplorable road conditions there even though money had been made available for its repair. The Sutarkandi road was recently designated as National Highway 51. Last year, the Ministry of Commerce had spent 14 per cent of its development funds for export infrastructure in the North-East, the officials say. Rs. 11 crore was given for the development of the Sutarkandi road while Rs. 10 crore each was given to Assam and Meghalaya for the development of export promotion industrial parks (EPIPs). Studies have also been undertaken by the Ministry for developing infrastructure linkages. The Shukla Commission had also stressed on development of infrastructure for promotion of cross-border trade in the region.