Sale of imported urea: '43pc of NFML output allegedly going to unknown destinations'

RECORDER REPORT

LAHORE: Monitoring conducted by the Punjab government through Divisional Commission-ers of sale of imported urea revealed that 43 percent of National Fertilizer Marketing Limited (NFML) product is going to untraceable destinations.

This was alleged by the Minister for Agriculture Punjab Malik Ahmad Ali Aulakh in a meeting here on Monday. The meeting was convened to review the availability of urea fertiliser in the province for Rabi crops.

The minister said that Punjab's requirement of urea for the month of December, January, February and March is 6 lac 50 thousand tons, 4 lac 25 thousand tons, 2 lac 75 thousand and 2 lac 25 thousand tons respectively, whereas due to non-availability of gas all plants on Sui Network like Dawood Hercules (Sheikhupura), Pak Arab Multan, Pak American Mianwali and Engro (En One) Dherki are closed. He said that only 6 lac 75 thousand tons of urea have been received in Punjab against the demand of 8 lac 25 thousand tons in month of October and November 2011.

Faderal government was timely informed about requirement of urea fertiliser in Punjab for Rabi in July 2011 but despite repeated requests for early imports through Minister for Agriculture and Secretary Agriculture no response was received. He further said that two dedicated press conferences one on 24.07.2011 and 15.08.2011 were arranged to highlight the significance of timely import for Rabi Season based on the experience of previous Kharif and ensuing gas shortage.

Federal government was also approached through Chief Secretary Punjab for early decision on urea imports with request for the meeting. Meeting was held on September 23, wherein it was requested to make arrangements for import of at least one million ton of urea. He said that daily dispatches information for monitoring of imported urea was requested from NFML which is still not received. The Ministry of Industries (MoI) was requested to intervene and ask NFML to provide list of dealers and dispatches information for effective monitoring through the divisional commissioners. He further said that 577 FIRs have been registered against the profiteers and adulterators and an amount of Rs 10.9 million has also been recovered as fine.