A parliamentary committee on Thursday revoked the government’s decision to issue licences for exporting sand, grit and boulders to India from the Department of Commerce under the Ministry of Commerce and Supplies from the next fiscal year.

The Natural Resources and Means Committee (NRMC) has said instead of the department, the district level monitoring and coordination committee formed by the government could issue licences to crusher entrepreneurs along with other required information like quantity of the natural resources. 

A Cabinet meeting on April 5 had decided to allow export of these materials in limited quantities for the remaining period of the current fiscal year.

Firms willing to export these products are required to obtain licenses from the department on the recommendation of District Coordination Committee regarding the district’s export capability and information about the firm’s annual production capacity.

According to NRMC Secretary Ram Sharan Ghimire, the government decision was against the spirit of the committee’s earlier report. The committee has stated that district level committee could issue permission to the entrepreneurs fixing the quantity of the natural resources to be exported to India for the current fiscal year.

However, crusher entrepreneurs have been demanding that firms that comply with the government’s environment guidelines on excavation should be allowed to export their products.

According to a study around 60,000 tonnes of sand, grit and stones were exported to India on a daily basis prior to the ban.

courtesy: the kathmandu post (Apr 15,2010)