Retailers Association of Chitwan (RAC) said the association has enforced a single rate for 26 different food items, including essential commodities, for this Dashain, Tihar and Chhat festival.[break]
“The uniform rate has been announced in a bid to check black marketeering and arbitrary pricing of commodities that are consumed the most during the festival,” said Arjun Sapkota, secretary of the association.
Given that the demand for food items soar sharply during the festive seasons, traders admit that chances of sudden hike in prices remain high if such measure was not taken. “Fixation of uniform price will ease both sellers as well as buyers,” said he.
The association officials even informed their decision to the Chitwan District Administration Office (DAO) and demanded the authority to inspect the market and punish traders that are found selling goods at higher rates.
“The rates unveiled by the association are reasonable too, as the rates are lower than the regular rates by Rs 2 to Rs 5 per kg,” said Bhoj Raj Paudel, president of RAC.
The association has asked all retailers to sell Sona Mansuli variety of rice at Rs 32 per kg, Sawa Mansuli rice at Rs 46 and Jeera Masino rice at Rs 48 per kg. It has also instructed retailers to sell sugar at Rs 63 per kg.
Similarly, the price of pure mustard oil has been fixed at Rs 140 per liter, mustard oil that comes in 5-liter pack at Rs 125 per liter, soybean oil at Rs 120 per liter and vegetable ghee at Rs 115 per kg.
“The enforcement of uniform pricing is a good step,” said Keshav Dhakal, a consumer. However, he stated that all retailers have not maintained the price list at their shops. “This leaves consumers unaware of the prices and creates room for irregularity,” he added.
Reena Regmi, another consumer of Bharatpur, echoed Dhakal and demanded that the retailers enforce similar uniformity in prices at shops operating in the outskirts of major marketplaces.
Paudel, meanwhile, said that the association has instructed all retailers to maintain price list at their shops. “If you did not see price list in any shop, just inform us or the authority. We will do the needful,” he told Republica.
Chief District Officer of Chitwan Basanta Raj Gautam said the district administration would continue market inspection throughout the festival to check black marketeering and other form of anomalies in the market. “A market inspection team headed by food inspector will remain active and conduct inspection even during the public holidays,” he stated.
Related story
Eating junk food is bad for health!
