As per the contract that Lomus has signed with the government, the company must supply Paracetamol tablets by February 20. However, its consignment of raw materials is stuck at Kolkata port due to prolonged dispute in customs clearance process. [break]The company doesn´t know whether it will be able to supply the essential drug to the government within the stipulated timeframe.
“We were supposed to receive the consignment before January 19. But we are not in a position to supply the medicine to the government as per the contract, as our raw materials are languishing at Kolkata for the past two weeks,” Pradip Jung Pandey, proprietor of Lomas Pharmaceuticals, told Republica.
The raw materials are worth Rs 5 million
Lomus Pharmaceuticals is not the only company that is suffering because of problems in customs clearance at Kolkata port. The disruption in customs clearance at the port has affected number of local firms and traders.
“It has come to our knowledge that many industries have started to face problems in continuing their production due to disruption in supplies of raw materials,” said Pandey, who is also vice president of Federation of Nepalese Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FNCCI).
Pandey said problems at Kolkata port have dealt a fresh blow to the industrial sector that was already reeling under power crisis and labor woes.
According to freight forwarders, the containers languishing at the Kolkata port contain products like wool, pharmaceutical products and their raw materials, solar panels, electronics, tires and food items.
Meanwhile, Chandra Ghimire, Consul General of Nepal in Kolkata said the Kolkata customs have lately expedited customs clearance process of Nepali containers.
“Documents of more than 200 containers were checked on Wednesday alone. We are hopeful that all remaining containers will get clearance by Friday,” Ghimire told Republica over phone from Kolkata. Ghimire further said the Kolkata customs have deployed additional staff members to speed up the process of verifying documents.
According to Ghimire, around 1,100 containers are waiting for their turn to get customs clearance.
Kolkata customs had been facing shortage of manpower after the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) of India arrested some staff members during raid that it conducted a couple of weeks ago.
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