Govt approves urgent import of urea

The advisers' committee on purchase yesterday approved import of 1,37,500 tonne of urea on an urgent basis to avoid any possible crisis of fertiliser ahead of the Irri-Boro season.
Besides, Bangladesh Bank (BB) yesterday issued a circular to all commercial banks, asking them to extend all-out cooperation to traders importing triple super phosphate (TSP) and muriate of potash (MOP).
Chaired by Law and Information Adviser Mainul Hosein, the advisers' committee meeting approved purchase of 75,000 tonne of bagged urea at a cost of Tk 194 crore and 62,500 tonne of granular urea at a cost of Tk 169 crore.
The committee also approved import of 50,000 tonne of phosphoric acid as raw material at a cost of Tk 132 crore for producing urea in the country.
After the meeting, Mainul told reporters that there will be no crisis of urea in the country and that if there is any problem in distribution, the government will take necessary steps.
Additional Secretary of the industries ministry Ayub Mia said, "We need to import nine lakh tonne of urea to meet the demand of the coming crop season. We have already imported two lakh tonne while import of another two lakh is in the pipeline."
He said a process to import more urea very soon is also underway.
The central bank issued the circular to all commercial banks following a request of the agriculture ministry. The circular said the recent flood damaged a huge agricultural product and it is urgent to recover the loss by increasing production in the Irri-Boro season.
The BB requested the banks to cooperate with fertiliser traders, considering their business relations with the banks, in opening letters of credit (LC) for importing TSP and MOP.