MULTAN, March 15: The urea contracted for import by the Trading Corporation of Pakistan (TCP) in February this year could not reach the country by its cut-off date, that was, March 13.
The TCP had called tenders (01/06) for the import of 50,000 tons of urea on Feb 21. Initially, the tender was supposed to be opened on Feb 13 but the matter was postponed due to the reasons better known to the authorities concerned for Feb 20.
However, it took two days to the TCP to evaluate technical and financial proposals of the bidders contending to win the contract. Finally, one of the bidders was awarded contract for the import of 40,000 tons of urea at a price of $249.9 per ton.
Earlier, all the importers who had shown interest in the tender were informed through a letter on Feb 14 that the seller would arrange the delivery of entire awarded quantity to reach at the Karachi port by March 13, 2006.
But, the importer could not meet the deadline. In the previous TCP tender (50/05) called in December last year for the import of 75,000 tons of urea, a contract for the import of 25,000 tons was awarded to an importer who had offered the lowest-ever price of $200 per ton. The TCP had fixed Jan 10, 2006, the deadline for shipment of the contracted amount at the Karachi port.
Although, the importer had urged the TCP to ‘rationalize’ the shipment but the authorities had turned down the request saying “no extension in delivery time will be allowed”. Therefore, the importer could not execute the contract and the surety bond of around Rs3.6m he had deposited for taking part in the bid was confiscated.
TCP chairman Asif Zaman Ansari told Dawn that the importer awarded contract under the last urea tender had informed that the ship carrying the consignment had sailed from Ukraine but the delivery had delayed because of some problem in Suez Canal. “However, the TCP will impose penalty on the importer for not meeting the deadline,” he added.
On not extending the shipment period in the previous case when the urea was likely to be imported at a much lower price, the TCP chairman said that there was pressure from the agriculture ministry to import the fertilizer by Jan 10. “TCP carries out all of its tenders in a transparent manner and whenever a change in the terms and conditions is made, it is done on the direction of (federal) government,” he elaborated.
It may be added here that 50,000 tons of urea tendered by the TCP in February this year could not be delivered reportedly due to short shipment period given under the tender 50/05. About this, the TCP chairman said that the corporation had sought guidance from the federal agriculture ministry if it needs to re-tender the defaulted quantity of urea when two of the three importers could not deliver by the deadline. “We issued the tender 01/06 when the agriculture ministry insisted that urea was still needed in the country,” the TCP chairman told.
Agriculturists say that the urea being imported now will not be needed for the Rabi season crop and will only be needed in May on the advent of Kharif season.
