The companies have already paid tens of millions of rupees as demurrage and penalty for failing to deliver fertilizer to Nepal within the stipulated deadline. [break]
Officials at the Ministry of Agriculture and Co-operatives (MoAC) said farmers would have to face shortage of fertilizer for summer crops due to uncertainty in procuring fertilizer from overseas markets.
“We haven´t received any proposal from transport companies to deliver chemical fertilizers this time around due to hassles during previous shipments,” Dr Hari Dahal, spokesperson at MoAC, told myrepublica.com on Tuesday.
Agriculture Inputs Company (AIC)- the state owned fertilizer distributor-- had invited tender from transport companies to supply a total of 20,000 tons of Diammonium Phosphate (DAP) and 10,000 tons of Urea from overseas market. However, the AIC was compelled to invite tender again as transport companies showed no response to supply fertilizers in the first call.
“No company has approached AIC with quotation proposal so far in response to the second call though the deadline for submission is expiring on January 26,” said Dahal.
Dahal said transport companies were showing no interest to supply chemical fertilizers to Nepal citing low water level with excessive silt deposit and frequent labor strikes at the port. Transport companies have to pay heavy demurrage charge if they fail to deliver shipments on time from the port.
Bulk International of Bangladesh has already paid Rs 18.5 million and Rs 15.5 million as penalty to Nepal after failing to deliver fertilizers on time. It also paid a demurrage charge of $150,000 to Kolkata port authority.
“It would be very difficult to import fertilizers on time if we failed to get alternative port of special berth at Kolkata port as most of the time was spend on re-bidding and waiting for the clearance of our shipment at the port,” Dahal added.
A total of 42,000 tons of fertilizers have arrived in Nepal from India and other countries since June, when the government initiated the import process. Mid-Gulf International of Cyprus and Bulk International of Bangladesh had supplied 12,000 tons of DAP and 12,500 tons of Urea from Jordan and China respectively. India had sold 17,500 tons Urea.
Currently, AIC has 4,000 tons of Urea and 1,500 tons of DAP in its stock. The subsidized fertilizers have been distributed through its 41 outlets. It is procuring 10,000 tons of fertilizers - 7,500 tons of Urea and 2,500 tons of Potash - from India. The Indian government had recently agreed to supply 50,000 tons of fertilizers as per Nepal´s request.
The government has allocated Rs 1.77 billion to import over 100,000 tons of chemical fertilizers for the fiscal year ending mid-July.
prabhakar@myrepublica.com
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