KATHMANDU, March. 3 (Xinhua) -- Desperate to cut down its ballooning trade deficit, the government of Nepal has planned to set up a high-level task force to handle the issue within a couple of months, Nepal's Office of Prime Minister and Council of Ministers (OPMCM) said on Monday.

     Officials said the task force has been envisioned to suggest and introduce measures to constrain import and promote export of local goods so as to eventually cut down the trade deficit.

     Recent government figure shows that Nepal's trade deficit expanded to 290 billion Nepalese currency (2.90 billion U.S. dollars) during the first half of the current fiscal year.

     According to the finance minister, the country imported goods worth 335 billion Nepalese currency (3.35 billion U.S. dollars) while exported goods worth 45 billion Nepalese currency (450 million U.S. dollars) during the period.

     "After holding extensive discussions with stakeholders, OPMCM came to the conclusion that there should be a high-level task force having higher power so as to recommend measures for bringing down the soaring trade deficit," Krishna Hari Baskota, secretary at OPMCM, told Xinhua by phone.

     He said the OPMCM has over the last weekend directed the Ministry of Commerce and Supply (MoCS) to begin work towards forming such task force.

     The task force will be conceptualized in such a way that it will have representatives from all line ministries including the MoCS, Industry Ministry, Agriculture Ministry, Energy Ministry, Labor Ministry, Finance Ministry and Law Ministry, among others. " The recommendations made by the task force will be unquestioned and the concerned government agency will be liable to execute the recommendations," added Baskota.

     The OPMCM has directed the concerned ministry to set up a high level task force at a time when the MoCS, the ministry in charge of import and export, has been revising the list of 19 items identified by the government in 2010 as having higher export potential.

     Baskota said if the government fails to introduce such a task force, the country will have to suffer around 600 billion Nepalese currency (6 billion U.S. dollars) in trade deficit by the end of the current fiscal year.