Birgunj Customs Office sees imports worth Rs 625 billion and exports worth Rs 101 billion in a year
The Birgunj Customs Office has recorded an import of Rs 625.9 billion in the last fiscal year 2024/25.
Compared to the previous fiscal year 2023/24, goods worth Rs 82.3 billion more were imported in the last fiscal year, a rise by 15.14 percent.
The highest amount of import was petroleum products worth Rs 101.8 billion followed by soybean crude oil worth Rs 57.6 billion. In the last fiscal year, machines and its spare parts worth Rs 36.63 billion were imported. Iron and iron-based goods worth Rs 34.41 billion were imported.
In the last fiscal year, there has been an increase not only in imports but also in exports.
Birgunj Customs Office Chief Deepak Lamichhane said that there was a significant increase in both imports and exports in the last fiscal year.
Goods worth Rs 101.84 billion were exported. Compared to the previous fiscal year, goods worth Rs 70.70 billion more were exported through this border point, recording an increase by 227.09 percent.
The most exported item is refined soybean oil. In the last fiscal year, 291.491,759 liters of refined soybean oil worth Rs 61.45 billion were exported. Likewise, other significant exports included fruit juice and iron and iron-based products.
Edible oil pushes Nepal’s exports to record high of Rs 277bn
Nepal’s exports surged to an all-time high in the fiscal year 2024/25, buoyed largely by a sharp increase in shipments of edible oils, particularly soybean, sunflower and palm oil, to India. According to the Department of Customs, exports, excluding electricity and IT-related services which do not move through customs points, jumped by 82 percent, reaching Rs 277.03bn. This marks a significant recovery after two sluggish years, when annual exports hovered around Rs 150bn.
The record-breaking surge was almost entirely driven by oil products. Soybean oil alone accounted for Rs 106.79bn, while sunflower oil exports contributed Rs 12.32bn. Together, edible oils made up nearly 44 percent of Nepal’s total exports in the last fiscal year. This spike helped raise exports’ share in Nepal’s foreign trade from 8.73 percent in 2023/24 to 13.31 percent in 2024/25.
While the numbers are encouraging, the underlying composition of exports paints a worrying picture. The export boom seen this year is not driven by domestic value-added production but rather by processing imported crude oil from third countries and re-exporting the refined products to India. This makes the growth highly contingent on India’s trade policy, especially its preferential import quotas for certain Nepali products.
The Solvent Extractors’ Association of India (SEA) earlier in February urged the Indian government to impose restrictions on edible oil imports from Nepal and other SAARC nations. Writing a letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the association alleged that these imports are violating rules of origin, sidestepping established trade norms, and causing significant harm to India’s domestic refiners, agricultural producers and revenue collection.
Responding to the industry demand, the Indian government in the last week of May, reduced the basic import duty on crude edible oils by 10 percentage points, bringing it down to 10 percent. This has made the prices of crude oil, a crucial raw material for the edible oil industry, cheaper, enabling oil refineries to bring down their prices, further increasing their competitiveness. Experts say the decision will make edible oil produced domestically more competitive in the Indian markets, hitting Nepal’s exports. Meanwhile, traditional export products such as carpets, pashmina, garments, felt goods and thread remained stagnant during the review year, while exports of iron and steel products, previously a top export, declined.
Trade deficit widens six percent
Despite the export rise, Nepal’s trade deficit widened to Rs 1527,09bn in 2024/25, as imports also climbed by 13.25 percent to Rs 1,804.12bn. Petroleum products dominated imports once again, accounting for Rs 274.27bn. The government collected Rs 115.24bn in revenue from petroleum imports alone. The trade deficit with India stood at Rs 846.51bn, and with China, it reached Rs 303bn. During 2024/25, Nepal imported Rs 1071.19bn worth of goods from India but exported merchandise worth only Rs 224.69bn. Imports from China totaled Rs 341.1bn, while exports were worth a mere Rs 2.63bn.
Nepse surges by 5. 17 points on Wednesday
The Nepal Stock Exchange (NEPSE) gained 5. 17 points to close at 2,978. 88 points on Wednesday.
The sensitive index, however, dropped by 0. 15 points to close at 516. 82 points.
A total of 44,866,159-unit shares of 319 companies were traded for Rs 19. 57 billion.
Meanwhile, Trade Tower Limited (TTL) and Sanvi Energy Limited (SANVI) were the top gainers today, with their price surging by 9. 99 percent. Likewise, Bhugol Energy Development Company Limited (BEDC) was the top losers as their price fell by 5. 32 percent.
At the end of the day, total market capitalization stood at Rs 1. 69 trillion.
CGT from share transactions at record high of Rs 16.54bn
The government collected a record Rs 16.54bn in capital gains tax (CGT) from share transactions in the last fiscal year 2024/25. According to CDS and Clearing Ltd, the highest CGT (Rs 4.23bn) was collected in July, the first month of the fiscal year, while the lowest was in December when Rs 580.7m was collected.
The secondary market, which had been subdued for months, started recovering from June last which explains the highest CGT collection in the first month of 2024/25. This was largely due to a more flexible monetary policy introduced by Nepal Rastra Bank, which boosted investor sentiment. After falling to around 1,800 points in 2023/24, the Nepal Stock Exchange (Nepse) index climbed to 3,000 in the first month of 2024/25.
However, the benchmark index fell and hovered around 2,600-point level in the remaining months. The index has been rising again since the start of the current fiscal year, breaching the 2,900-point support level.
Investors holding shares for a year or less are subject to a 7.5 percent capital gains tax, while those who hold shares for more than a year are required to pay five percent on profits. Higher trading volume means higher CGT collection for the government, whereas low activity during slumps brings in less.
Month wise breakdown shows, Rs 4.24bn was collected in July, Rs 2.58bn in August, Rs 586.5m in September, Rs 758.7m in October and Rs 1.04bn in November. Likewise, Rs 580.7m was collected in December, Rs 1.05bn in January, Rs 1.33bn in February, Rs 693.5m in March), Rs 1.22bn in April, Rs 1.17bn in May and Rs 1.27bn in June.