Agartala: Tripura Chief Minister Dr Manik Saha has said that the trade ties between India and Bangladesh through Tripura should be mutually rewarding and cash crops grown in the state must get import duty subsidies in the neighbouring country for more balanced trade incentives for both the sides. The Chief Minister was speaking to media persons after meeting the Bangladesh High Commissioner to India M Riaz Hamidullah at the Destination Tripura Business Conclave.
The Chief Minister is said to have raised the matter related to high import duty charged by Bangladesh on tea and rubber–two crucial cash crops of Tripura. The Chief Minister urged the Bangladesh envoy to ensure that Tripura gets a fair chance to compete in the Bangladesh market.
“During the meeting, he wanted to know whether we have something to say on the trade relations. I have said that we want to export our products in the Bangladesh market. Bangladesh imports tea from elsewhere. Give Tripura tea the same treatment. If not less than that of what is ideally charged, keep the import duty parallel for us so that our tea can also have an access to the market. Due to the heavy import duty, our tea fails to compete. The same logic applies to the value added or finished rubber goods,” said Dr Saha.
According to Dr Saha, he had also assured the Bangladesh envoy that similarly Tripura would also accept Bangladeshi products such as cement, stone chips and fish. “This should be a mutually rewarding give and take policy. The trade ties had been frozen for sometime which is neither good for us nor for them. All these issues had been discussed at length during the meeting,” the Chief Minister said.
The Bangladeshi High Commissioner while reacting to the meeting asserted that more than trade and commerce, India and Bangladesh should strengthen its bond through human to human relation.
“The trade relations between India and Bangladesh is one of the many aspects of the relations that people of both the countries have shared since long. I have travelled to Tripura through railways from Guwahati. What I am trying to portray through this is that the environment and human to human relations between the people of both the countries should be given top most priority,” said Hamidullah.
In order to strengthen cultural ties between both the countries, the Bangladesh envoy said that a proposal had been placed to screen award winning movies of both the countries for the people. “We want to screen national award winning Bangladeshi movies for the people of India. This is not for any commercial purpose. It will strengthen our cultural relations and definitely we will have our trade and commerce in a more strategically solid position. We are already in talks with Delhi for simplifying the trade opportunities and we are putting our best efforts to ensure that the talks keep on going and given the present circumstances we don’t anticipate any interruptions in the talks,” he added.
On being asked whether Bangladesh was keen to restore trade ties, he said, “There should be no iota of doubt about that.”
It has to be noted here that India-Bangladesh ties deteriorated after the ouster of former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina in August 2024.
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Due to the deteriorating ties, Tripura has suffered strategic loss as two major connectivity projects that would have given Tripura a big economic boost failed to get operationalised despite completion.
Maitri Setu built over river Feni in South Tripura is yet to be inaugurated. The bridge connects Tripura’s Sabroom with the Chittagong post of Bangladesh. Similarly, the Agartala-Akhaura railway project that cuts down distance between Tripura and Bengal to just 500 kilometers is also stalled. Both the projects are awaiting inauguration.
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