The Department of Commerce says, ”Prices have not increased compared to last year, there is no black market.” It is an open market, it cannot be interfered with.
What you should know
On October 27 (Monday), the Kalimati Fruit and Vegetable Market Development Committee fixed the average selling price of broccoli at Rs 198 per kg. At the Sukedhara vegetable market, which is about 9 km away, the price of broccoli is double. Common people buy a kilo of broccoli for 450 rupees.
The price of Banda is fixed at Rs 53 per kg in Kalimati market. In the retail market, it is being sold at 100 rupees per kilo. The prices of vegetables such as broccoli, banda, local cauliflower, bodi, bitter gourd, parsley, rayo sang etc. are being sold in the retail market near to the wholesale price.
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Farmers are too busy to cut paddy. At this time, the price of rice should not increase. But the price of rice in the market has increased from 100 rupees to 150 rupees per bag, according to retail traders. The price of cooking oil has also increased by Rs 10 per liter since last one month. According to Sanjay Phuyal, a wholesale businessman, the price of all brands has increased by Rs 10 per litre. After the price increases in wholesale, it will increase in retail. Basant Shrestha, the treasurer of the Retail Trade Association, said that the price per liter has increased to Rs 20 per liter. He said that the prices of flour and flour have also increased by Rs 5 per kg.
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There is only one week left for the festival known as the festival of lights. At this time, the consumption of coconuts, raisins, cashews, almonds, buttermilk, sukmel etc. is widespread. The price of these items has also increased. According to Shrestha, treasurer of the association, since two months, the price of coconut has increased by 150 rupees to 850 rupees.
The price of walnuts has increased from 20 to 25 rupees per kilo to 500 rupees. Similarly, the price of cashew has increased from 50 per kg to 100 rupees. Cashews imported from India have increased by 100 rupees per kilo and cashews from Vietnam have increased by 50 rupees, he said. After the increase in wholesale, it will naturally increase in retail too.'
Some of the items mentioned above are just examples. As the festival approaches, market prices increase every year. As the demand for food and other goods increases during the festival, the businessmen also increase the prices to make a profit of two or four rupees. Some have increased the price excessively by covering the occasion of the festival. Consumer rights activists say that the last price increase in the market was caused by businessmen.
In the past, monitoring by the government mechanism was intensified as soon as the festival approached. There was a situation where employees were assigned from the Ministry of General Administration for monitoring,' said Madhav Timilsina, president of the Consumer Rights Research Forum, but this time there was no monitoring aimed at the festival. Although the mood of the monitored firms was observed, chaos was created in the market by doing nothing but instructions. As a result, the price has increased arbitrarily.
The responsibility of monitoring the market price belongs to the Department of Commerce. It is the responsibility of commerce to control the price increase in the market, from carteling to cylinder induct. But due to Genji's demonstration on August 23 and 24, the monitoring has slowed down. After the demonstration, the department has been monitoring the situation, but it has given instructions and given immunity. There are two reasons for only giving instructions to improve, the first reason is not wanting to spoil the commercial aspect. Another reason is who will protect the monitoring team if there is a clash during action," said an officer of the department, "monitoring is done according to the above instructions. If there are too many cases, normal action will be taken, otherwise only instructions will be given.'
According to the official, there was no monitoring during the Dasain holidays this time. Since the 13th was Dasain holiday, the team of the department was not engaged in market monitoring. On October 11, after monitoring 4 professional firms, 3 firms were instructed to improve and one firm was instructed to attend the department. Then followed up on October 22. While monitoring 20 business firms, one firm was fined 5,000. On October 23, after monitoring 14 firms, 4 firms were fined. On October 24, 19 firms were monitored and 4 firms were fined.
'Up to August 23, monitoring was good. On the 23rd, 26 business firms were monitored and action was taken against 6 of them. Employees were also afraid to monitor the movement. On August 31, only one firm was monitored, and instructions were given to improve," said another official of the department. "After that, market monitoring focused on giving instructions to improve rather than taking action. Bharat Prasad Acharya, information officer of the
department, claimed that the price has not increased compared to last year. He said that he should not interfere due to the open market policy. "The price doesn't seem to have increased as much as last year. Wholesale prices have not increased. During the monitoring, no black market has been seen," he said. "The department will look at the samples during the monitoring. The shop that was monitored did not have that much problem. Businesses have been registered, we have also taken action against those who have problems.'' "When purchasing goods, the bill should be taken compulsorily, expired goods should not be purchased," he said. Although the department claims that there is no problem, the common people are suffering from high prices. Consumer workers also claim that there is a problem in most shops.
'Department did not find anything because of the monitoring name only. There is a problem in most of the commercial firms in the market. The market is becoming chaotic," said Krishna Prasad Bhandari (Marseille), president of Consumer Awareness Campaign Nepal, "but monitoring is not effective. After repealing the Black Market Act, the market has become popular. There has been widespread fraud in the valley as well as in the district. Madhav Timilsina, president of the
Consumer Rights Research Forum, also said that there was fraud in terms of price as well as quality. But he said that there was no regulation in the market. The price of the item is different according to the shop. No registration, no registration. But there was no effective regulation on price and quality from government agencies,'' he said. The consumer did not get the feeling of being monitored.'
