KATHMANDU, Nov 6: In response to the recent sugar crisis in the market, Salt Trading Corporation will provide retailers with up to 10 sacks of sugar for sale and distribution.
Following the sugar crisis, the Prime Minister's Office coordinated with sugar-producing industries to secure 3,000 metric tons of sugar through Salt Trading. Additionally, special monitoring teams, in cooperation with security agencies, were deployed in all three districts of the Kathmandu Valley to locate illegally imported sugar. A high-level monitoring team, comprising representatives from various agencies, was organized in coordination with the Office of the Prime Minister and the Council of Ministers, and they confiscated numerous bags of sugar that had been illegally sent to various locations in Kathmandu.
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Although the sugar that Salt Trading buys from industrialists is sold and distributed only through its outlets, for some shops under the retailers association and Food Management and Trading Company, it has now been arranged that retailers will be able to buy up to 10 sacks of sugar for sale and distribution in coordination with the Office of the Prime Minister and Council of Ministers, since the consumers have to stand in long queues. Consumers will be able to buy this sugar at Rs 115 per kg. Action will be taken if the trader sells the commodity for more than the fixed price. Retail traders and businessmen will be able to buy sugar from Salt Trading's Kalimati branch from today and Koteshwor branch from tomorrow.
A meeting of high officials of the Prime Minister and Council of Ministers Office, Department of Commerce, Supplies and Consumer Protection, Department of Food Technology and Quality Control, Internal Revenue Department, Nepal Police, Armed Police Force discussed various measures to end the sugar crisis and provide sugar easily.
Under this, it was decided to make daily monitoring effective, conduct special operations to seize illegal sugar, coordinate to bring the sugar available in the Nepali sugar industries to the market for consumers, and also take initiatives to import sugar from India.
To protect Nepal's sugar industry, the government imposed a 30 percent customs duty. However, the sugar industry was found to be selling sugar to other industries that use it instead of making it available to consumers, resulting in the crisis.
