April 27: The government has allocated a budget of Rs 38.5 billion to import chemical fertilizers for the current fiscal year. Because the budget is not released on time, there has been a problem with the import of fertilizer that is supposed to be bought from India through the G2G process.

So far, the government has been able to import only 30,000 metric tons of urea through the G2G process. However, according to the agreement with the Indian Government, Nepal should have brought 100,000 metric tons of urea and 50,000 metric tons of DAP. However, the Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock Development has informed that due to the untimely release of the budget, fertilizers could not be brought as per the agreement.

According to a senior official of the ministry, out of the Rs 38.5 billion allocated for the purchase of fertilizers in the current year, the ministry has received only Rs 22 billion.

When the fertilizer is brought through the tender process, payment is made only after the fertilizer arrives at the customs, said the official, adding that the government has to pay in advance to import fertilizer through the G2G process.

He also said that to prevent the situation of not being able to import fertilizer on time, the ministry has already started to allocate a sufficient amount for fertilizer in the upcoming budget.

If this happens, funds will be allocated in the regular budget for about 550000 metric tons of fertilizer required in Nepal.

To reduce the problem of fertilizer shortage in the country, Nepal signed a G2G agreement with the Indian government on February 16, 2023. According to the agreement, Nepal has to bring 565,000 metric tons of urea and 370,000 tons of DAP fertilizer from India in five years.

The state-owned Agricultural Inputs Company Limited has got the responsibility of buying and importing fertilizers under the G2G process. 

Bishnu Pokharel, the business managing director of the company, informed that budget allocation is the main problem for the delay in bringing the fertilizers under the G2G initiative.

According to him, at the initial stage, the process was delayed due to disagreements on issues such as the price and transportation cost. Later, there was a shortage of funds after the price of fertilizers increased tremendously in the international market. Even now, due to the lack of funds, there is a problem in supplying the fertilizer.

Currently, the Agricultural Inputs Company has a stock of 37,000 metric tons of urea and 19,000 metric tons of DAP. Likewise, the Salt Trading Corporation also has 24,000 tons of fertilizers including urea and DAP.