Kathmandu, Sept 17: The Industry and Commerce and Labour and Consumer Welfare Committee under the parliament has directed the Finance Ministry to grant permission for the import of sugar at subsidized rates.
The ministry has been urged to ensure VAT exemption and discount on customs duty on imports of 50,000 metric tons of sugar as demanded by the Ministry of Industry, Commerce and Supplies (MoICS) to avert possible shortage of sugar during the festive season.
Prior to this, the MoICS had approached the Finance Ministry, seeking its facilitation to bring in the aforementioned quantity of sugar in view of the upcoming festivals but was permitted to import just 20,000 metric tons of sugar with a 50-percent concession on customs duty, according to MoICS Secretary Madhu Kumar Marasini.
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In this context, the parliamentary committee has instructed the Finance Ministry to facilitate the MoICS to import sugar at subsidized rates. Committee President Abdul Khan said the committee's attention has been drawn towards the report that the MoICS’s request for easing the imports of daily essentials including sugar and rice when festivals are approaching was not addressed by the Finance Ministry.
In addition to this, the committee has instructed the MoICS to take a proactive role to check adulteration of food, artificial shortage, black-marketing, illegal hoarding, artificial price hike, and other unethical practices in the market by making its market monitoring effective with sufficient arrangements of human resources. The government has been asked to open fair-price shops at various parts of the country and to ensure smooth and quality supplies of daily essentials during the festivals.
MoICS Secretary Marasini apprised the committee that they have already written to the Indian side to supply sufficient amounts of sugar to Nepal during the festivals and the latter has promised to make the supplies as demanded by Nepal.
The government is preparing to import 10,000 metric tons of sugar via the Salt Trading Corporation and 10,000 metric tons from the Food Management and Trading Company Limited.
Meanwhile, the National Consumers Forum Chair Premlal Maharjan apprised the House committee that though the supply of daily essentials is at ease, the market prices are skyrocketing. Consumers are bearing the brunt of unnatural price hikes of goods, said Maharjan.
During the meeting, the committee members advised the government to maintain integrated data of the demand, production and supply of sugar, to address the issues of sugarcane farmers, to pursue a policy of self-sufficiency in sugar production and intensify and strengthen the market monitoring.
The meeting also decided to conduct market monitoring in view of the upcoming festivals with the formation of a dedicated team.
(RSS)
