As per the direction of the Ministry of Commerce and Supplies, the Department of Commerce (DoC), the Department of Food Technology and Quality Control (DFTQC) and the Nepal Bureau of Standards and Metrology (NBSM) have made public their plans to control market anomalies.[break]
The DoC has already started its market monitoring program. It plans to further intensify monitoring after the third week of September. Anil Thakur, director general of DoC, told Republica that the department has already started market monitoring in different parts of the country. “We will intensify it after the third week of September,” added Thakur. Similarly, the DFTQC is doing groundwork to prepare a separate work list apart from its festival-specific programs.
Meanwhile, Salt Trading, National Trading Limited, Nepal Food Corporation, and Dairy Development Committee are preparing to open an integrated bazaar for the upcoming festivals from September 3. Through the integrated bazaar, the state-owned entities plan to sell daily commodities at reasonable price.
“Preparations for integrated bazaar and mobile shops are already underway. This is expected to ensure smooth supplies of essential commodities as well as control market anomalies,” Thakur added.
Salt Trading and National Trading have already started bolstering stock of edible commodities like sugar, edible oil, flour and salt, among others. The demand for food commodities such as sugar, ghee, edible oil, salt and flour among others, nearly doubles during the festive season.
“We already have sugar in sufficient stock. We will import more if the demand increases,” Urmila Shrestha, managing director of Salt Trading.
Salt Trading is soon importing 20,000 tons of sugar to bolster its stock for the upcoming festivals.
Nepal Food Corporation has already started selling daily commodities like rice, pulse, flour, ghee, milk products, sugar and edible oil at reasonable rates. The corporation is offering discount of Rs 2 per kg on edible commodities.
Rajendra Baskota, deputy managing director at NFC, told Republica that the corporation is selling five different varieties of rice. NFC has more than 45,000 quintals of rice in stock for the Kathmandu Valley alone.
The state-owned food supplier, however, is still undecided about sell goats for the Dashain festival. It had faced loss of Rs 3.6 million in goat trade last year.
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