July 7: The government has not been able to regulate the market in an effective way though negligence in quality and price of daily consumed goods has increased. Foods, vegetables along with other daily consumer goods are neither of good quality nor the consumers are able to buy them in an affordable price.

Though government argued that the market monitoring has been done for a year to maintain the quality and also to control the price, purchase of daily goods in the market is increasingly out of reach for ordinary consumers.  According to the economic report of Nepal Rastra Bank (NRB) in the first 10 month of current fiscal year, the price of pulse and legumes has increased the highest of 23.4 percent whereas, the price of vegetables has increased by 20.1 percent. However, in practice the inflation rate is much higher than in the statistic by NRB.

Raj Kumar Shrestha, General Secretary of Retail Trade Association admits that the price of sugar, pulses and other essential foods have increased since few days. “The price of some essential goods has increased 7-8 percent,” he says.

He explains that retailers are not responsible for the increase in price. “Wholesalers are more responsible than retailers for the increase in price,” he said. Chairman of the National Consumer Forum, Prem Lal Maharjan says that the market has been out of control of the government. “The ministry team that went for market monitoring has been attacked,” he says adding, “This is the evidence about how anarchic the market has been.” He said it is due to the failure of government to perform the interventionist role to control the market situation. The team of supply minister Ganesh Man Pun in coordination with Department of Supply management and Consumer Welfare protection were physically attacked at Balkhu Vegetable market in capital on Tuesday. He said that the anarchy in the market was flourished as the consumer right act along with rules and regulation were traditional and not effective. According to consumer right activists, there are Food Act, Metrology and Quality act, The Drug Act, Black Market and Social Crime Act Essential Service and Object Operation Act along with other 2 dozen Acts concerning the consumers. However, the chaos in market has flourished due to the lack of implementation as well as timely amendments of laws concerning with consumer rights.

The department that has been given the primary responsibility of supply management and monitoring of the market informs that the market is being monitored regularly. The department informs that the market is being monitored according to the available resources. According to Director General of the department, Gokul Prasad Dhital, the inflation is caused due to bulky budget and increase in salary of government employees. The department says that consumers should be aware of the price and quality of the goods.