Kathmandu, September 16

Eyeing the upcoming festivals of Dashain, Tihar and Chhath, the government is setting up fair price shops in altogether 36 different locations across the country starting tomorrow.

The Ministry of Supply (MoS) has announced that fair price shops will be set up on the premises of Salt Trading Corporation (STC) in 13 different locations within Kathmandu Valley, and STC’s regional and depot offices in 23 different locations outside the Valley.

STC, through the fair price shops, will be selling salt and sugar at a discount of five rupees and two rupees per kg, respectively, and cooking oil at Rs 107 a litre. Moreover, it will also be giving attractive discounts on 78 different types of food items that it sells.

Nepal Vegetable Ghee and Oil Manufacturers’ Association is providing 300,000 litres of cooking oil, of which 100,000 litres will be provided to Nepal Retailers’ Association (NRA) to be sold at Rs 107 per litre and the remaining 200,000 litres will be provided to STC to be sold through the fair price shops, according to a media release issued by MoS.

NRA will be selling 5,000 sacks of sugar at discount of five rupees per kg and 3,000 sacks of salt at discount of two rupees per kg.

Moreover, mobile fair price shops will be operated through three vehicles in the main markets around the Chakrapath areas of the Valley. Every consumer will be able to purchase up to three kgs of salt and six kgs of sugar through the mobile shops.

Nepal Food Corporation will be providing special discount of up to Rs 10 per kg on rice and beans. Similarly, additional Rs 10 per kg discount will be provided on the rates set for goats and chyangra.

Dairy Development Corporation (DDC) will be providing discount of Rs 10 per kg on sales of ghee and five rupees per kg on paneer through its distribution centres.

Moreover, Nepal Oil Corporation (NOC) has already slashed the price of cooking gas by Rs 50 per cylinder for the festive season.

The fair price shops, set up by the government every year before the onset of the festive season, are aimed at controlling the market price of food items. This year, the fair price shops, which will be in operation till November 7, will open from 10:00am to 6:30pm.

Bhat-Bhateni Supermarket has also announced heavy discount on altogether 260 food items — 84 types of lentils and beans, 89 types of spices, three types of cooking oil, 24 types of rice, 10 types of noodles, 23 types of Nepali tea and 27 types of flour. NRA and other retailers have also pledged to provide as much discount as possible to facilitate consumers, as per the MoS statement.

Monitoring to be ramped up

KATHMANDU: A meeting of the rapid action market monitoring team held on Friday under Ministry of Supply Secretary Prem Kumar Rai has decided to ramp up market monitoring to curb malpractices like black-marketing, creating artificial shortage and price hike, among others, by sending five additional teams on the field starting Tuesday. The meeting has also decided to prepare a monitoring guideline under the prevailing legislation within 15 days.