Nepal-India Border Smuggling Poses Economic and Security Challenges

The open border between Nepal and India, stretching approximately 1,800 kilometers, is as sensitive and challenging from an economic and revenue security perspective as it is easy in terms of historical, cultural, and familial relations. Especially the Morang-Biratnagar area, a major commercial and industrial center in the eastern Terai, has been directly suffering from border smuggling for decades.

The problem of illegal trade in the border area is not a new phenomenon. This chain, which has been going on for decades, has neither found a permanent solution for control nor has the state shown the necessary long-term policy and technical readiness to stop it. Due to the tendency of the administration to appear strict for a few weeks when a new government is formed or administrative leadership changes, and then return to the old state, cross-border smuggling has become an institutionalized 'disease'. On one hand, it is undermining domestic production and legitimate trade, while on the other hand, it is creating a big hole in the state's revenue system.