Strike in India hits Indo-Bangladesh trade

AGARTALA - The dawn-to-dusk shutdown called by 13 opposition political parties across India against rising prices badly hit India-Bangladesh trade Tuesday, officials here said.

The disruption took place at the Benapole land customs station and the principal land port in India\’s West Bengal state.

\”Hundreds of trucks were stranded on both sides of the land port due to the shutdown,\” a customs official in Agartala told IANS, quoting his counterpart in Benapole border.

\”Over 100 truckloads of Bangladeshi goods have been stranded on the other side of the border and unable to cross the Akhaurah land customs station in view of the strike in Tripura,\” the official said.

Adjacent to Agartala, Akhaurah LCS is the most important international trading land port in northeast India with an average of 200 Bangladeshi trucks loaded with goods for export coming to Tripura every day.

\”Due to the day-long strike and closure of Indo-Bangla trade through Akhaurah LCS, the central and Tripura governments would lose Rs 6.5 million as customs duty and sales tax,\” Prasanta Bhattacharjee, member of the government\’s permanent trade facilitation committee (North East), told IANS.

According to Bhattacharjee, also an exporter, normally every day export-import business worth of Rs.30 million takes place through the Akhaurah LCS.