KATHMANDU, Feb 4: Traders have expressed their readiness to gradually reduce the market prices of edible oil as the prices of the raw materials used for this product has started falling down in the international market. 

According to the Department of Commerce, Supplies and Consumer Protection, the owners of the edible oil industries have agreed to reduce the prices of their products in the line with the fall of the prices of raw materials seen in the international market.

Netra Prasad Subedi, Director General of the Department, said they had been scrutinizing the details of the edible oil industries for the past few weeks. “The department has stepped up enquiry and monitoring works on suspicion of black marketing amid an increasing number of complaints registered against the edible oil industries,” Subedi said.

The graph of edible oil price had been in the upward trend since mid-August. In the past four months alone, the prices of edible oil increased by up to Rs 50 per liter, according to the retailers.     

Officials at the Department said traders reported that prices of raw materials of the edible oil were mainly hit by the protests launched by workers in Brazil-- one of the main suppliers of the products in the global market. With the resumption in the smooth supply of the raw materials, prices have started to fall gradually and this is expected to take down the prices in the domestic market as well.

Despite their claim, traders seem ready to roll back their decision to hike the prices of their products after the department started taking stern actions against the unscrupulous traders. Two weeks ago, the Department had slapped a cash fine of Rs 300,000 each against two edible oil producers on charge of artificially raising the prices of their products.

 
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