AR Khair, procurement manager of AIC said the company arranged the fund from internal resources and account transfer from the Ministry of Agriculture Development (MoAD), which oversees AIC. [break]"We released the payment for IPL on Thursday. We expect to receive 2,500 tons of first consignment within a week," Khair told Republica on Saturday.
After weeks of indecisiveness, which sparked severe scarcity of fertilizer in the market, AIC this week decided to procure a total of 30,000 tons of DAP from IPL. Khair said AIC will arrange funds for procurement of an additional 20,000 tons of DAP by securing loan from banks if the government fails to provide extra funds immediately.
As per the recent instruction from the MoAD, AIC had signed a deal to buy 11,000 tons of DAP from Indian Farmers Fertilizers Cooperative Ltd (IFFCO) through IPL at Maximum Retail Price (MRP) of IRs 4,300 (NRs 6880) per ton.
In a hope to ease the supply of fertilizers amid deepening shortage in paddy plantation season, AIC had decided to procure 30,000 tons of DAP from IPL, which was found supplying underweight sacks of fertilizers four months back.
Then Public Account Committee (PAC) of parliament had instructed the government to take action against the Indian firm blacklisting it. The Commission for the Investigation of Abuse of Authority (CIAA) is still investigating the case.
The government has allocated Rs 2.83 billion to procure subsidized fertilizers for the fiscal year 2011/12. The government has procured and distributed a total of 140,000 tons of chemical fertilizers for the current fiscal year.
Meanwhile, 5,000 tons out of the total 12,500 tons of urea to be procured from Mineral and Mine Trading Company (MMTC), has already entered Nepal through Biratnagar and Birgunj customs points. "We have started distribution of freshly procured fertilizers through cooperative outlets stopping the distribution from Kathmandu head office from Friday," said Khair. He said another lot of urea will arrive in Nepal by next week.
Shashi Raj Tuladhar, managing director of AIC said arrangement has been made to distribute freshly acquired fertilizers with priority to farmers in hilly districts of central and eastern region where shortage of fertilizers is acute.
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