Nineteen trucks carrying boulders left for Bangladesh yesterday. Interim guidelines for surface collection and dredging of riverbed materials by the cabinet allowed the department of forests and park services to issue permits based on the number of wheels of the vehicles.
With the weighbridge fixed, trade department will issue a certificate of origin based on the weight slip. The certificate is a document required for export to a third country.
The export was suspended for nearly two months after officials discovered that exporters carried about 35 metric tons but declared only 15 MT on paper. Concerned authorities then enforced load carrying capacity limit for trucks.
Though the gate for export opened on June 21st, none of the trucks left Gelegphu. One of the exporter groups asked exporters to withhold until the price floor with importers is finalized. They proposed to raise the price floor to 25 dollars per MT from 18 dollars now.
The trucks that left for Bangladesh yesterday were the one with balance Letter of Credit (LC) with importers. Exporters were told not to get a new Letter of credit at the existing rate.
“Exporters within this country, are asking to make the LC above 15 dollars, but as of now 18 dollars per MT are being practised. So we continue with that and if you can raise price floor, it is much better for both exporter and nation as a whole,” said Dorji Wangchuk, Exporter, Gelegphu.
The Natural Resources Development Corporation in Gelegphu normally sells 30 truckloads of boulders to exporters every day. Had there been no restriction on carrying capacity, some 6000 truckloads of boulders worth a billion ngultrum would have been exported by now.
