Kathmandu, August 28

State-owned enterprises (SOEs) have announced that they will be selling daily essentials at a subsidised rate during the festive season of Dashain, Tihar and Chhat. Nepal Food Corporation (NFC), National Trading Ltd (NTL), Salt Trading Corporation (STC), Dairy Development Corporation (DDC) and Nepal Oil Corporation (NOC) have announced subsidised price of the daily essentials which will come into effect from September 17 till November 6 after the instruction of the Ministry of Supplies (MoS).

NFC has offered a discount of five rupees per kg on 15 types of rice, buckwheat and beans compared to the prevailing market rate. It is also preparing to sell 2,000 to 2,500 he-goats and chamba goats (chyangra) in Kathmandu during the festive season.

Similarly, STC will offer discount of five rupees and two rupees per kg on sugar and salt, respectively, during the festive season.

Quick look

Product

Discount

Rice, buckwheat, beans

Rs 5 per kg

Sugar

Rs 5 per kg

Salt

Rs 2 per kg

Cooking gas

Rs 50 per cylinder

Ghee

Rs 10 per litre

NOC has also announced a discount of Rs 50 on each cooking gas cylinder. Currently, NOC has been generating a profit of Rs 181.03 on sales of each cylinder of cooking gas. The state-owned petroleum company has said that it will also soon take a decision on providing discount on kerosene during the festive season. NOC has been generating a profit of Rs 21.76 on sales of every litre of kerosene. However, the price of kerosene has been fixed at par with the diesel price to prevent adulteration of kerosene in diesel. Since the last few years, NOC has been fixing similar rate for diesel and kerosene to avoid adulteration that was rampant when the price of kerosene was lower than that of diesel.

The government-owned DDC has also announced a scheme for the festive season. It has announced a discount of Rs 10 per litre on ghee, today. DDC will also make an announcement regarding discount on fresh cheese (paneer) a few days later after its board meeting takes a decision on the matter.

The state-owned enterprises, however, have not decided yet on the number of fair price shops that they will open and their locations for the festive season.

“Subsidised prices offered by the public enterprises will be instrumental to safeguard the consumers from cartel, artificial shortage of goods and other unethical market practices of the private sector players,” according to the MoS.

The Ministry of Supplies has urged National Trading Ltd, Salt Trading Corporation and Nepal Food Corporation to operate fair price shops during the festive

season. The amount spent to operate the fair price shops will be compensated by the government.

A meeting led by Minister for Supplies Deepak Bohara and comprising representatives of the concerned SOEs and Nepal Retail Trade Association, today, decided to write to the Ministry of Finance to release the fund to compensate for the cost involved while running fair price shops to the respective state-owned enterprises.

The Nepal Retail Trade Association has proposed the government to utilise around 500 retail vendors in Kathmandu to sell the products offered by the government enterprises at subsidised rates so that the SOEs can save the cost of operating fair price shops.

The minister-led meeting has formed a committee under leadership of Joint Secretary of MoS Ananda Ram Regmi and comprising the stakeholders to study on whether the sales of the aforementioned products through retail vendors at subsidised rates will be feasible or not. The meet also decided to invite departmental stores to discuss on sale of subsidised products.