Kathmandu, May 31

Following a nod in the federal budget, the Ministry of Industry, Commerce and Supplies (MoICS) has begun the process to merge the now-shuttered National Trading Ltd (NTL) with National Food Corporation (NFC).

The fiscal budget of the government unveiled on Tuesday had envisioned merging NTL with NFC to form an autonomous National Supply Company (NSC), as recommended by MoICS.

A few months ago, the government had decided to shut NTL after the enterprise persistently incurred losses and added financial burden on the government. The government had given voluntary retirement to all 264 NTL staffs before shutting the enterprise..

After it was made inactive, almost Rs 25 billion worth of property of NTL across the country has remained unused.

“We are in the last stage of identifying and valuating the actual property of NTL. Once it is completed, we will use the existing network of both NTL and NFC to enhance the supply situation of essential goods in the country,” said Mukunda Poudyal, joint secretary at MoICS.

The new NSC will basically deal with import, collection and distribution of 10 essential goods, including rice, oil, sugar, lentil and other food grains, according to Poudyal.

MoICS believes that the supply network of essential goods in the country, especially in the remote areas, will be stronger following merger of NTL with NFC.

Similarly, MoICS officials informed that NSC will also be responsible to distribute subsidised food items in remote areas and run subsidised food outlets across different local units as envisioned by the budget.

Meanwhile, formation of the NCS is expected to be under the provincial format.