While the sugar price has soared to over Rs130 per kg in the retail market, government outlets have started providing the sweetener at a subsidised rate of Rs97 per kg, as part of the relief package for inflation-stricken consumers in the upcoming festivals.

A consumer, however, will be able to buy a maximum of 2 kg per visit.

The state-owned Salt Trading Corporation said it has around 400 kg of sugar in stock, enough to fulfil demand for the next two weeks.

The Food Management and Trading Company has also started selling sugar at Rs97 per kg. The company, however, has sourced sugar from the Salt Trading Corporation.

“As we received the tender quotation with a high price, it is less likely that we can supply sugar before the festival,” said Kumar Rajbhandari, information officer of Salt Trading Corporation.

“We are discussing with the supply ministry to ease the process to import sugar.”

People have started making a long queue to buy subsidised sugar at Salt Trading outlet in Kalimati.

On Sunday, there was a long queue at the Food Management Trading Company outlet in Thapathali as well. Most of the people were in the queue to buy sugar.

The Salt Trading Corporation said that it has been selling sugar from its old stock following the delay in the procurement of fresh sugar.

On Sunday, the Food Management and Trading Company launched a fair-price shop that offers food items at subsidised rates for the festival periods.

The offers will run till December 19.

The fair price shop is offering a discount of Rs7 per kg to Rs10 per kg on different varieties of rice, lentils and legumes.

Similarly, the company is offering a discount of Rs7 per kg to Rs10 per kg on flour, Rs7 per kg discount on edible oil and Rs20 discount on ghee produced by the Dairy Development Corporation.

The company said it would provide a discount of Rs10 per kg on goats.

The Food Management Trading Company is operating the fair shop from its 48 outlets while Salt Trading Corporation has been selling goods from its 35 outlets across the country.

The Dairy Development Corporation is offering its products at discounted rates through its 11 outlets across the country.

“We will also launch mobile and online services to supply food items in the areas where we don’t have the outlets,” said Gyanu Thapa, chief of Food Management and Trading Company, Bagmati Province.

“The objective of the fair price shop is to stabilise the market price and control unhealthy competition,” Thapa said. “If the government provides further support, the company will increase the number food items.”

Industry Ministry Ramesh Rijal said the government has been implementing the uniformity price strategy in the market.

Rijal said that the government is committed to protecting consumer rights by making market activities transparent, healthy and competitive.

But consumer and consumer rights activists have long been saying that there is no presence of the government in the market.

“It has been 10 years since the Food Management and Trading Company started operating fair price shops to provide relief to the consumers,” said Mohan Prakash Chand, chief executive officer of the company.

But consumer rights activists say that the rates offered by the government's fair price shop are almost the same as the offers provided by supermarkets like Bhat Bhateni Super Market and Big Mart.