Money
Festive Shopping: Retailers to be enlisted to run fair price shops
The Department of Supply Management and Protection of Consumers Interest has enlisted private retail shops and cooperatives to sell subsidised essential goods at the fair price shops that it plans to open at 36 locations across the country for the convenience of Dashain shoppers.The Department of Supply Management and Protection of Consumers Interest has enlisted private retail shops and cooperatives to sell subsidised essential goods at the fair price shops that it plans to open at 36 locations across the country for the convenience of Dashain shoppers.
The department will also be selling essential goods out of three mobile vans in the Kathmandu Valley. The government has been establishing fair price shops during festivals following complaints that subsidised products are hard to find during the festival shopping rush.
According to the department, it has issued a public notice inviting private retail shops and cooperatives to set up stalls along with state-owned Salt Trading Corporation (STC), Nepal Food Corporation (NFC) and Dairy Development Corporation (DDC) at designated locations.
“We will be supplying them subsidised items,” said Yogendra Gauchan, director general of the department. The department announced on Friday that it would be launching fair price shops at 36 locations. There will be nine outlets and three mobile vans in the Kathmandu Valley and 24 outlets elsewhere in the country. The shops will run for the next one and a half months. As per the department, the fair price shops will sell rice and pulses at a 3 percent discount. Shoppers will be able to buy edible oil at a discount of Rs30 per litre. Cooperatives will sell spices at a discount of Rs10 per kg. Consumers will be able to get sugar at Rs57 per kg at the cooperatives. DDC will sell ghee at Rs850 per kg, down from market rate of Rs900 per kg.
Gauchan said retail stores and cooperatives would also be selling products at the same rate as the fair price shops. “The department has developed a special mechanism to prevent possible irregularities by the privately-run outlets. The police and District Administrative Offices will monitor the shops,” he added.
Meat sellers said that the price of mutton, one of the most sought after items during Dashain, would not exceed Rs1,000 per kg this year. However, mutton has become dearer by Rs50 per kg over the week and now costs Rs950 per kg. Ramesh Khadgi, president of the Nepal Fish Meat Sellers Association, said they were compelled to increase the price of meat by Rs50 per kg due to a hike in freight charges.
Bimala Khanal, president of the Forum for Protection of Consumers’ Eye Nepal, said that the government should be vigilant to prevent irregularities in the market as the festival period is when traders create artificial shortages, increase prices and sell substandard products as subsidised items.