(TibetanReview.net, Jul21’26) – Following reports that a group of 28 Indian traders had been turned back on Jul 11 despite having permits from their government to enter Tibet through the Lipulekh Pass for cross border trade at Taklakot in Purang county, China has now given the go ahead for their entry on Aug 1. However, since the border trade season lasts only till October, they do not see much benefit from it, reported the PTI news agency Jul 20.
It was previously reported that the Lipulekh Pass border crossing in Uttarakhand state’s Pithoragarh district would reopen for registered traders in the first week of June. But this did not happen. When a group of 28 traders from the region finally arrived at the last local Indian border village of Gunji with India government permission Jul 11, the Chinese did not let them in.
The disappointed Indians had complained that traders from Nepal’s Urai Bhanjyang border crossing were, on the other hand, being let in and allowed to do business at Taklakot.
But now, information received from the Chinese administration in Tibet has confirmed that Indian traders will be permitted to enter Tibet starting Aug 1, Ashish Joshi, Sub-Divisional Magistrate and Trade Officer of Dharchula, has said.
The Dharchula office has issued passes for border trade to 113 traders and an equal number of their assistants.
But the India traders say the delayed start of the cross-border exchange of goods will not be of much benefit as the trade is restricted until October, and Tibetan buyers start losing interest after August, the report said.
“We have lost July, the most important month for business. Now, there is a fear that nearly 40% of the stock will remain unsold by the time the trading season ends,” Jeevan Singh Rongkali, President of the India-China Border Trade Association, has said.
Rongkali has said that alongside selling new merchandise this year, traders also wanted to clear out old stock that had been lying in warehouses in Tibet since 2019.
The Taklakot cross border takes place on the basis of barter exchange of good.
The traditional barter trade stopped following the 1962 India-China war. It was resumed in 1992 but suspended in 2019 amid the spread of the Covid-19 pandemic followed by the Galwan Valley border clash of 2020.