October 8: With the festival of Dashain just around the corner, there has been an artificial shortage of sugar in the market. At a time when the people consume more sugar than normal, the state-owned company entrusted with the import and distribution of sugar at subsidized rates does not have stock of sugar. There is no possibility of government importing subsidized sugar before Dashain.
Taking advantage of the lack of sugar with the government, traders have increased the price of sugar arbitrarily creating an artificial shortage of the essential item in the market.
The Retail Trade Association, which had set the retail price of sugar at Rs 130 per kg until a few days ago, says that it has now stopped fixing the price of sugar.
Pabitra Bajracharya, president of the association, said that the association did not fix the price of sugar after the big traders caused an artificial shortage of sugar and left the retail traders in the lurch.
“We don't have sugar either. Some traders are selling sugar that they had bought at less price. If the big traders don't give us sugar, what will we do even if we set the price?'' she said.
Since the association did not fix the price, there is no uniformity in the price of sugar in the market.
It has been found that the shopkeepers have been arbitrarily selling sugar at prices ranging from Rs 135 to 140 per kg.
Suresh Sharma, who came to buy sugar in Kathmandu's Asan on Thursday, said that he bought a kilogram of sugar at Rs 140 after visiting four to five shops.
Stakeholders say that the possibility of subsidized sugar arriving in the market before Dashain is very low while the artificial shortage has created chaos in the market.
Gajendra Kumar Thakur, joint secretary at the Ministry of Industry, Commerce and Supplies, said that although the government took a diplomatic initiative to import 50,000 tons of sugar from India through the G2G process on July 21 in an attempt to control black marketing, there has been no response from the Indian side so far.
According to him, since the Indian side has not shown any interest in supplying sugar so far, it is uncertain whether the sugar will come through G2G process before Dashain.
According to the information given by Sharmila Subedi, information officer of the Food Management and Trading Company, the state-owned company had called for a 45-day global bid on September 27 to purchase sugar. However, there is less than two weeks for the Dashain festival to begin. Therefore, it is certain that subsidized sugar will not arrive before Dashain.
"To prevent this current situation from happening, we requested permission from the Ministry of Finance to buy sugar early through the Ministry of Supplies. However, despite our timely effort, we could not bring sugar before Dashain because the finance ministry did not release the budget,'' she told New Business Age.
The Salt Trading Corporation issued a 15-day notice and called for bids with the aim of importing sugar through fast track and bringing it before Dashain after the finance ministry gave permission for the purchase recently. The notice expires on Saturday and the Salt Trading Corporation officials say that they are still not sure whether they will be able to import sugar before Dashain or not.
Brajesh Jha, departmental head of the Salt Trading Cororation, said that since there are only 10 days left for Dashain, nothing can be said about whether or not subsidized sugar will come before Dashain.
“It also depends on who gets the tender. If a tender is given to an Indian company, the sugar will come within 1 day. It is not possible to say anything at this time. We will try but there is no guarantee that it will come," he said.
