Trinamul Rajya Sabha member Shanta Chhetri has sought intervention from the Union external affairs ministry while flagging certain problems faced by the traders of Jaigaon town in Alipurduar district that shares borders with Bhutan, because of new rules imposed by the neighbouring country.

Earlier this month, Chhetri wrote to external affairs minister S. Jaishankar, saying hundreds of Indian traders in Jaigaon are suffering inconveniences and havng to spend extra money to go to Bhutan and ply their trade.

Chhetri wrote that Jaigaon bordering town (with Phuentsholing, the commercial capital of Bhutan on the other side) lacks any major industry.

The local economy, for which small and medium trading is the mainstay, relies largely on Bhutan.

These traders had to bear the brunt of economic hardship for more than two years as Bhutan had stopped the movement of people through its land borders because of the Covid-19 pandemic, Chhetri pointed out.

“The country reopened the gates for passenger movement on September 23 last year. However, as it came up with a number of new rules, the traders are facing huge problems,” she said.

She pointed out that Ngultrum, the Bhutanese currency, is mostly used in Jaigaon by buyers, and added that earlier Jaigaon traders could keep the Bhutanese currency at the banks of that country against a nominal charge and transfer it into their accounts through RTGS to get its INR value. “However, since last September (when Bhutan reopened its gates), Bhutan has not resumed this currency exchange system,” Chhetri said.

“As a result, bundles of Ngultrum are lying with Indian traders who are now facing working capital shortage in INR and cannot pay their Indian suppliers,” said a trader.

The issue, sources said, has been raised by the Jaigaon Merchants’ Association and some other local traders before the Consulate General of India in Phuentsholing and the Royal Monetary Authority of Bhutan.

In her letter, Chhetri also said that the traders of Jaigaon and nearby areas need to visit Bhutan very frequently for various business purposes, including for selling items and collecting dues.

During each of their visits to Bhutan, each Jaigaon trader has to pay Nu 1,200 for him, along with another Nu 1,200 for a driver and Nu 4,500 per vehicle — every day — the Trinamul leader said.

“Also, it is mandatory for them to make reservations in three-star hotels for their accommodation. This is an additional financial burden on them,” said Chhetri, pointing out that these new rules make it very expensive for Jaigaon traders to conduct their business normally.

The external affairs minister should intervene and resolve these issues at the earliest, she said.

Her initiative has earned appreciation from Jaigaon’s traders.

Many of them have pointed out that John Barla, the BJP MP of Alipurduar (Jaigaon falls under this Lok Sabha seat) and also the Union minister of state for minority affairs, should have taken up this initiative.

“Our local MP should be more proactive in addressing our issues. As we are having problems, we communicated the issue to Shanta Chhetri last month and she acted on it. We hope the central government will take it up with the Bhutan government,” said R.S. Gupta, the general secretary of the Jaigaon Merchants’ Association.