By Our Reporter
The consumers in Kathmandu are facing an acute shortage of sugar on the eve of the Tihar festival. It is evident from the long queues of people we see at the Kathmandu-based outlets of Salt Trading Corporation
Although the government claimed a few days ago that there would be no shortage of sugar in the market, it is now otherwise.
It is said that the present shortage surfaced after the big traders hid the sugar they had in their stock to sell at high prices. Sugar is not available in most shops inside the Kathmandu Valley now, and if it is available, one has to pay more than Rs. 150 for a kg. Even the fair-priced shops open for festival seasons have no sugar.
The STC is selling two kilograms per person at the rate of Rs. 97 per kilogram from its sales centres. The flow of consumers at the STC outlets to get sugar has been high, particularly after Dashain.
When sugar went missing from the market, many people worried whether they could not make Sel Roti and sweets for Tihar. It is Tihar when the largest amount of sugar is consumed. About 30,000 tonnes of sugar is required in Tihar
After the sugar amount fell in its stock, the STC is said to have started collecting sugar from Everest Sugar Mills and received around 45 tonnes of sugar from the Mills last Friday. However, the price of sugar received from Everest Sugar Mills is higher than the existing price of sugar being sold by the STC from its outlets, according to the Corporation.
The government also decided to raid big businesses to find out whether they were hiding sugar, but it failed to find any sugar.
After failing to find any option, the Office of the Prime Minister and Council of Ministers on Monday decided to make arrangements for the distribution of sugar through STC by collecting it from the sugar-producing industries. It also coordinated with the sugar-producing industries and made arrangements to purchase 3,000 tonnes of sugar through STC and distribute it in the market.
The annual demand for sugar is about 300,000 tonnes, and 30,000 tonnes of that is consumed only during the Tihar festival, and the 3,000 tonnes being distributed by the STC would be like a drop in the ocean.
A maximum of 140,000 tonnes of sugar is produced annually within the country and there is a shortfall of 160,000 tonnes of sugar from domestic production.
There are sugar-producing industries, but the government has failed to protect them as most traders and politicians tend to import sugar from abroad instead of buying it from local industries and expanding sugarcane farms in greed of the commission they get while importing it. Many cane farmers have cleared the cane farms after the industries and government failed to pay for their produce in time.
Consequently, sugar shortage has become a recurrent problem, especially during festival season. This time, it became acuter when India imposed a ban on sugar export.
In order to protect the Nepali sugar industry, the government set a 30 per cent customs duty, but the sugar industries sold sugar to other industries instead of selling it to the consumers, and this also resulted in a shortage of sugar in the market.
According to the Ministry of Industry, Commerce and Supplies, India has agreed to provide 25,000 tonnes of sugar to Nepal.
A few days ago, the government requested the government of India to provide sugar to Nepal through the fast track targeting the upcoming Tihar festival.
Out of 25,000 tonnes of sugar to be purchased from India, 20,000 tonnes of sugar will be imported in customs exempted which will be brought before Tihar.
Similarly, the remaining 5,000 tonnes of sugar will be brought after Tihar without customs exemption, said the Ministry.
But it is not likely that 25,000 tonnes of sugar will arrive before Tihar, and many people in Kathmandu will be enjoying Tihar without sugar.
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