Kathmandu, Jan. 16 -- It's always been a bitter story between sugar mills and sugarcane farmers.

sugarcane price has remained unchanged since last year. The government subsidy for farmers, however, has been increased to lessen the burden on sugar mills.

As per the new arrangement, sugar factories have to pay Rs471.28 to farmers for a quintal of cane, while the government pays them Rs65.28 a quintal-earlier Rs60 per quintal-as subsidy.

In spite of this, sugar mill operators are now calling for increasing the factory price to at least Rs78 per kg from Rs63 per kg. The move, if agreed upon, will make consumers cough up as much as Rs90 for one kilogram of sugar, say retailers. Last year, the government doubled the import duty on sugar to 3...