SHILLONG, Feb 2 � Assam�s world famous tea has propelled the State as the leader in terms of export from the Northeast during 2010-11.
Assam exported goods worth Rs 476.59 crore during 2010-11. The State during the period imported goods worth Rs 34.55 crore. Assam was followed by Meghalaya with a total export worth Rs 383.95 crore. Meghalaya�s import stood at Rs 9.45 crore during 2010-11.
These statistics were revealed by the Customs Department here today on the sidelines of the International Customs Day and commemorating 50 years of the Customs Act, 1962. The theme of this year�s Customs Day was �Borders divide � Customs connects�.
Overall from the North-east, tea from Assam and coal from Meghalaya constituted about 88.16 per cent of the total export. The other items of export included boulder-stone, limestone, fruit, bamboo, betel leaves, vegetables, edible buffalo offal, wheat flour, raw hides and skin of animals, umbrella parts, dry fish, soybean, cumin seed, Indian perfumery compounds, natural rubber, marble stones and tractor and motor parts.
However, manufactured goods in the export basket were negligible. During 2010-11, the total export from the region was around Rs 861.14 crore.
On the other hand, 90 per cent of the imported items to the region included cement and other manufactured products, including waste of wool and cotton, non-knitted articles of synthetic fabric, mosquito net, PVC plastic sheets, pipes, tubes, furniture, household articles of plastic, broken and crushed stones, building bricks, jute products, chemicals and others. The total import was worth Rs 300.93 crore during 2010-11. The trade from the region crossed the Rs 1,000-crore mark till December 2010-11.
Trade is carried out in the region through the Land Customs Stations (LCSs), airports and inland container depots present in the respective States and connecting foreign countries.
In Meghalaya, Borsora in West Khasi Hills district, bordering Bangladesh is the biggest trading hub with a total trade worth Rs 461.93 crore during 2010-11 from amongst the 24 functional LCSs.
Moreover, eight more LCSs would come up in the region. These include Bleting-Nam Tsering along the Indo-Bhutan border and Bumla-Khenjamane along the Indo-China border in Arunachal Pradesh, Behiang and Konkanthana along the Indo-Myanmar border, Manipur, Kuliang and Maheshkhola along the Indo-Bangladesh border, Meghalaya, Avakhung along the Indo-Myanmar border and in Nagaland and Kaladan along the Indo-Myanmar border in Mizoram.
