The Nepal Chamber of Commerce (NCC) and the Korean Embassy in Kathmandu jointly organized this third edition of the expo with support from the Ministry of Commerce and Trade and Export Promotion Centre (TEPC) Nepal.

The event that began on November 30, 2017 saw a participation of more than 50,000 visitors as of the concluding day.

While South Korea acted as the partner country of the expo, Thailand was the focus country, and the next edition of the expo in 2018 will have Thailand as the partner country.

Expo Generated Good Business

With a prime focus on business interactions, exchange of information on trade and marketing of Nepali products, the expo featured a total of 225 stalls that showcased wide variety of products from 8 different counties such as South Korea, India, Pakistan, Japan, Thailand, China and Bangladesh along with Nepal.

Of these, 23 were Korean stalls and 15 were Thailand stalls.

According to the organizers, the expo has seen visitors of different fields and has created a good business.

“We got a good feedback from visitors and people got to know about new products from various countries,” said NCC President Rajesh Kaji Shrestha.

According to Rastra Bhusan Chakubaji, Coordinator of the expo, there exists a higher demand for cars showcased in the expo along with earthquake-resistant panels in the form of construction materials.

On the business side, “We saw sales of around Rs 20,000 every day during the expo and people even revisited our stalls to buy more products,” said a sales person of Universe Beauty, a Thailand-based cosmetic stall.

Another Thai exhibitor of Fast-Moving Consumer Goods (FMCG) products Sujana Shakya said, “We saw strong sales in the first two days of the expo which nearly emptied our stocks. We also got offers from distributors and online shops.”

Various other products related to electronic, automobile, home appliances, fashion and accessories, food and beverages, and books were featured at the event.

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The Government of India said this in its Gazette notification on October 27, 2017, wherein, it announced the removal of GST on supply of its services to Nepal and Bhutan in case of payments made in the Indian currency.

Though GST is not applicable on export of goods and services, it was exempted only for the payments that involve convertible foreign currencies.

With this, the cost of service exports involving cargo handling, transportation and container freight station became costlier. This turned into a burden for Nepalis, who usually transact with the Indian service providers in the Indian currency.

Following this, the Government of Nepal and the country’s private sector sought GST exemption on Indian service exports to Nepal.

In response, in the last week of September 2017, the Indian Government announced GST removal on Indian services involving transit operations such as shipment, transportation, insurance, container freight station and cargo handling charges, among others for Nepal and Bhutan.

Transit and cargo handling are among the major service imports Nepali traders get from India.

Decision Positive for Nepalis

According to Hari Bhakta Sharma, President of the Confederation of Nepalese Industries (CNI), the removal of GST would save Rs 10 billion per year on service imports for Nepali traders.

Rabi Shanker Sainju, Joint Secretary at the Ministry of Commerce Nepal, opines that the decision makes it easier for Nepali and Bhutanese traders to transact in Indian currency, which is widely circulated in both the countries.

The recent amendments to GST rules on the recommendation of GST Council of India will boost service exports from India to Nepal, Sainju added.

It’s noteworthy that the Nepal Rastra Bank also encourages Nepalis to make payments in Indian currency.

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