Govt to import 45,000 tons of sugar within Sept .

KATHMANDU, Aug 18: Two state-owned entities -- Salt Trading Corporation (STC) and National Trading Ltd (LTD) - are making preparation to complete imports of 45,000 tons of sugar by the end of September.

The Ministry of Commerce and Supplies a few months back had directed STC and NTL to import 32,500 tons and 12,500 tons of sugar respectively.
However, they had failed to import sugar from Brazil due to rise in sugar prices in the international market.

Urmila Shrestha, general manager of STC, said they would now import 20,000 tons and 12,500 tons of sugar from India and Brazil respectively. “We have already received a consignment of 5,000 tons of sugar from India. We will receive the remaining 15,000 tons within the third week of September,” Shrestha added.

STC has already completed the process of issuing Letter of Credit (LC) and draft for the import.

“Consumers won´t have to face shortage of sugar during Dashain and Tihar as we will complete the import process ahead of the festivals,” she added.

At present STC has over 10,000 tons of sugar in stock.

Similarly, NTL is also importing 12,500 tons of sugar from Brazil. Brazil has agreed to supply sugar at $597 per ton, including the transportation fare to Haldia port of Kolkata.

“We have already completed the process of issuing LC and the suppliers have agreed to complete supply by the end of September,” said Pradipta Pradhan, a senior official at NTL. NTL currently has 857 tons of sugar in stock.

The government has decided to lower customs duty for sugar to one percent from existing 15 percent so that the state-owned entities can distribute sugar at rates lower than that of private traders.

State-owned distributors have been providing sugar at Rs 64 per kg to wholesalers and wholesalers are retailing sugar at Rs 65.5 per kg.

Source : myrepublica.com