Since the government is unable to bring sugar to G2G, it is entrusted to the private sector

Although they were told to import from GTU for last year's Tihar and Chhath, finally Food and Salt could not bring sugar. That is why the ministry has opened the application of sugar import for the private sector.

The Ministry had sent a letter to the Industries Department on 30 June 081 asking them to increase the process for the private sector. After that, the department issued a notification on June 2 and asked those who are interested to use 19,000 tons of sugar as raw material out of the 25,000 tons of sugar import permit quota. The department asked to submit the application with various provisions. Accordingly, 10 private companies have received import permits.

Those allowed to import are Agro Thai Foods Pvt Ltd, Goodlife Beverages Pvt Ltd, Asian Biscuits & Confectionery Pvt Ltd, Quality Food (Nepal) Pvt Ltd and Quality Food & Snacks Industries Pvt Ltd. Quality Confectionery Pvt Ltd, Quality Diet & Food Industries Pvt Ltd, Shivam Dairy & Food Industries Pvt Ltd, KRS Ventures Pvt Ltd and Sujal Foods Pvt Ltd have got permission to import sugar. These companies will buy 19 thousand tons of sugar from National Cooperative Expert Limited, India.

It was decided to bring sugar from GTO to prevent shortage during the festival. However, our institute could not import. An official of the industry department said that they were not interested in importing as it would cost more. For that reason, the decision has been made to import even if it is from the private sector.

The ministry sent a letter on July 5, 080, to bring 50,000 tons of sugar through GTU. After 3 and a half months, India announced that it would give 25,000 tons of sugar via email on 16 October 2018. After that, out of 25,000 tons, food and salt were assigned to import at the rate of 10/10,000 tons initially. There was a 50 percent duty exemption on importing the said sugar. But import failed.

At present, customs duty of 30 percent has to be paid when importing sugar. 13% VAT is charged on it. When customs duty was exempted, only 15 percent had to be paid. But food and salt did not import G2G sugar because it was expensive to import. "The global tender became expensive, it was sold in the market for up to 125 rupees per kg. But the price of salt was seen to be up to 170 rupees,' said Kumar Rajbhandari, assistant general manager of salt, 'that's why we could not bring it.'

According to Rajbhandari, while buying sugar from GTOG, advance payment has to be sent and it is expensive when analyzing the price. He claims that JTOG's sugar is expensive because it has to be brought from India's National Cooperative Expert Pvt Ltd.

Despite claiming that salt and food are expensive, the then spokesperson of the ministry, Gajendra Prasad Thakur, said that it can be brought up to 95 rupees per kg. But food and salt did not bring sugar on the pretext of cost. After that there was an artificial shortage of sugar in the market. Common people had to pay up to 150 rupees to buy a kilo of sugar. Even now, the price of sugar in the market is up to 107 rupees.

It has not been many months since sugarcane crushing was over. But the market price of sugar is expensive. The reason for this is that the supply system is not agile. There has been a game of increasing prices in collusion between the government, government institutes and industrialists," said Madhav Timilsina, president of the Consumer Rights Research Forum. Timilsina claims that if the situation continues, the price of sugar will increase during the festival.

The industry, which has been given permission to import by the government, will get sugar from India's National Cooperative Expert Pvt Ltd. They don't even get customs exemptions on imports. Due to non-importation of old sugar, new demand could not be made. That's why the ministry said that private companies have been allowed to import.

Even though there was a 50 percent customs discount for government institutions, they could not import. Now till the government takes a decision, the customs will be levied,” Ministry spokesperson Chandi Prasad Ghimire said, “India has not given the facility of open import of sugar and rice. Quota has been fixed in them. We have also given a short period of time and given import permission to interested industrialists. Ghimire said that the company that got the import permission was given a short time. "We did not hold the import permit, that's why we have asked to bring it quickly," said Ghimire. Out of the 25,000 tons, the remaining 6,000 tons of sugar was imported by Dabur Nepal, according to the ministry.