“Adding further confusion over procurement of an agreed 30,000 tons of Diammonium Phosphate (DAP) from India, MoAC has passed the buck to AIC, stating it does not need instructions from the ministry for fertiliser procurement,” a high level source at MoAD told Republica.[break]
AIC had twice sought permission from MoAD for the import of fertilizers from the Indian Potash Limited (IPL). However, MoAD had maintained a silence for last two weeks, aggravating the fertilizer crisis in the midst of the paddy season.
A few months ago, the then parliamentary Public Accounts Committee (PAC) had instructed the government to blacklist IPL and the Commission for Investigation of Abuse of Authority (CIAA) launched an investigation into reported fraud by the Indian company while supplying fertilizer.
The source said the ministry´s letter to AIC on Thursday shows the incompetence of the ministry in deciding whether or not to procure DAP from the tainted Indian company.
“Passing the buck to AIC is likely to further delay procurement of the fertilizers,” said the source.
Shashi Raj Tuladhar, managing director of AIC, said the board meeting of AIC on Friday would take a decision whether to procure fertilizer from IPL.
IPL has said that it would supply fertilizers at Maximum Retail Price (MRP) instead of Import Parity Price (IPP) as agreed between Nepal and India. The source at MoAD said MRP of DAP is 30 percent higher than IPP.
The source also indicated another obstacle in the procurement of DAP from IPL as the Indian firm has said it would use its own sacks for packaging the fertilizer. This is against the traditionally accepted practice of using AIC sacks while supplying fertilizers. As per the Chemical Fertilizer Control directive, AIC has to use its own sacks to import fertilizers.
Meanwhile, arrival of 12,500 tons of urea from the Mine Trading Mineral Company (MMTC), is still uncertain though officials at AIC had claimed that the first consignment would arrive by Wednesday.
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