The village, which is close to the Indian border, is infamous as an illegal route to bring in goods from across the border by escaping taxes. The entire Martewa village is currently into illegal trading of petroleum products.
A visit by Republica staff to the village on Sunday found that there was not a single house in the village without having storing tanks and bottles for petroleum products. One could witness motorbikes and cycles transporting petrol and diesel along the streets of the village. Villagers were seen busy unloading petroleum products.
“I bring almost 160 liters of diesel to the village every day,” Mohamad Salim of Bihar, India said, adding, “I bring the fuel from India almost five times a day in my cycle and offload it to different houses in the village.”
Salim has been conducting petroleum business in this manner since the last two months. “I must have earned around Rs 400,000 till today,” Salim said when asked about his income.
According to Salim, petrol pumps in Bathana easily give diesel and fuel charging Rs 2 higher per liter. Salim, then sells those diesel and petrol at Martewa village keeping Rs 15 margin in a liter. “I bring petrol and diesel at Rs 105 per liter each and sell them here at Rs 120 per liter,” informs Salim.
The Republica staff also observed some police personnel at the entry point to Martewa village. However, those security personnel of Nepal Police had been pretending as if nothing had happened.
“We have been directed to pretend as if nothing wrong is going in the village,” police personnel there said.
Interestingly, when the Republica staff entered the village with his motorcycle, people from every house were shouting: “Do you need petrol/diesel?”
Reliable sources informed that every night some big trucks and tankers enter the village and take away the diesel and petrol stored there. While
majority of industries in Morang and Sunsari are said to consume petroleum products from the village, those petroleum products are also said to be traded up to Kathmandu.
Government officials said that those petroleum products stored at Martewa village have been fulfilling 45 percent of the demand in Biratnagar and nearby areas.
“We know that the government is losing huge taxes through those petroleum products that enter Martewa illegally. But, we have not been able to do anything,” an officer at Biratnagar Customs Office said, adding, “The gray market has enlarged so much that we can't control it.”
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