February 14: The start-owned corporation responsible for importing fertilizer is struggling to open Letter of Credit (LC) because the government is yet to release the required budget.

The Salt Trading Corporation (STC)  is facing problem in opening LC as it did not get the amount allocated in the current fiscal year’s budget.

The Salt Trading Corporation said that the government should have released Rs 9.33 billion but it has so far received only Rs 2.25 billion.

Out of the 57,500 metric tons of urea that it has to purchase, the Salt Trading Corporation has bought and distributed 30,000 metric tons. The remaining 27,500 metric tons of urea are in the pipeline for import.

However, STC spokesperson Kumar Rajbhandari informed that since corporation has not yet received the amount it should receive from the government, there is a problem in opening a new tender and LC.

He shared that the corporation has received Rs 2.25 billion so far which is much less than the allocated budget.

He told New Business Age that it is not certain when the remaining budget will be released.

According to Rajbhandari, Salt Trading is currently paying a hefty sum of Rs 9.3 billion in interest. On the one hand, there is a lack of funds to open a new LC, on the other hand, the Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock Development has already given instructions to open tenders to buy fertilizers for the coming year.

The Ministry of Agriculture has repeatedly requested the Ministry of Finance to facilitate the process of purchasing fertilizer by releasing the budget quickly, but the Ministry of Finance has not released the budget because of lack of resources. Finance Ministry sources say that the delay is due to the non-availability of resources for the time being.

The country requires additional 90,000 metric tons of fertilizer for annual crops. The Ministry of Agriculture has sent a letter to the Ministry of Finance to ensure an additional amount of Rs 7 billion for that. According to Salt Trading, if the amount is not released on time and there is a problem in buying fertilizer, there may be a situation where there will be a shortage of chemical fertilizers for annual crops.