“Stop!” An Assam Rifles jawan at the Kudengthabi check-post snaps at the driver, trying jump the queue of 50-60 cars — loaded with goods purchased from the informal trading hub at Namphalong in Myanmar, just across the international border in Imphal, some 110 km away from Moreh on the Indian side.
The rush was unusually high, as a tribal organisation had given an impromptu strike call for the next day.
It was 4.30 pm. The sun had started setting in this North-East corner of the country, and everyone was in a hurry to cross the 50-odd km of hilly stretch in Myanmar, which is the stronghold of half a dozen Naga and Kuki insurgent groups. It’s advisable not to be out on the highway after sundown.
Unsafe highways
But security can’t be given the short-shrift, either. So Assam Rifles, which guards the border, runs a thorough check of every vehicle, passenger and piece of luggage at least twice on this route. Then there are the check-posts of the Customs, the police, the narcotics wing... One can be stopped by the many agencies lined up here to uphold the law.
Yet, frustrating,y, the grey dominates life here — be it extortion and drugs trafficking or the thriving informal trade. “They are not separate events but often connected and one must not rule out the involvement of mainstream politics either,” says a researcher on the condition of anonymity. The connection is difficult to prove. But the impacts are visible.
According to an official of the Imphal-based Manipur Chamber of Commerce and Industry, the truck rental for carrying FMCG goods on the 2400-km Delhi-Imphal route is ₹1.25 lakh. However, the rental for carrying goods for some 500 km from Guwahati to Imphal is ₹65,000. The rental for the 110-km Imphal-Moreh route is ₹30,000.
This is the cost of buying peace from the nearly dozen outlaw groups collecting “taxes” from transporters, consignees and consignors. Higher the value of the consignment, higher the tax. “Lack of security on the highways and security excesses are together holding growth to ransom,” says a prominent businessman.
RK Shivachandra, a ruling BJP politician and the convenor of Manipur’s Act East Policy Committee, admits to the gravity of the situation. “Our Chief Minister wrote to the Centre for a highway protection force,” he tells BusinessLine.
Cross-border cartel
But the uncertainty is a blessing to many. Packaged refined edible oil produced by a Singapore company is available in Imphal for around ₹90 a litre, roughly ₹20 less than the market price of competing varieties sold by its Indian joint venture.
The oil is purchased at ₹70 a litre from the Namphalong market and illegally trucked to Imphal. But how does the consignment clear so many check-posts including those of the Customs Department? Speed money, quite simply.
Theoretically, the Manipuri buyer could have taken the formal route. Importing from big distributors/sellers at Mandaly in central Myanmar would have reduced the value of the consignment to half, thereby reducing the incidence of the duty.
But there are two hurdles in this. First, businesses in Myanmar are not interested in LC-based trade. Second, a Myanmarese-Chinese group, controlling the Namphalong market, is not kind to such attempts.
Since it has direct links with insurgent groups, ferrying goods from Moreh to Imphal becomes doubly difficult. And, since the persons, deployed to enforce rules and regulations have little to gain from the formal trade, they look the other way.
This is second in a three-part series. The first part was published on November 13.