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Published : 16 Sep 2025, 11:28 PM
Finance Advisor Salehuddin Ahmed has said allegations against the agriculture ministry of favouring multiple companies owned by a single person in private sector fertiliser imports will be examined.
Speaking after a meeting of the Advisory Council Committee on Procurement on Tuesday, he said the agriculture and industries ministries have been asked to look into the matter.
A group of businessmen have alleged that private fertiliser imports have created “fresh opportunities” for irregularities, a controversy that has continued for a week.
It has been claimed that a person was allowed to import the same consignment of fertiliser at different prices for two countries under one order, in breach of rules.
On Sept 11, expatriate journalist Zulkarnain Saer also alleged corruption in fertiliser imports in a Facebook post.
Sharing copies of several work orders issued to companies, he wrote: “I have never seen such an organised move to loot public money before. This looks like a planned arrangement to plunder state funds. The incident has taken place in one of the country’s most vital ministries, agriculture ministry.
“In collusion with certain officials, unprecedented irregularities have taken place in awarding import orders through negotiations beyond the tender process, ignoring the rules.”
He added: “According to the notification, orders must be awarded to the lowest bidders in sequence. But that was violated, and through collusion, work orders were given beyond the quoted prices through negotiation.”
The agriculture ministry later issued a statement denying the allegations. It claimed that the interests of trader syndicates had been “hurt” by the “removal”, while government funds had been saved.
The ministry noted that the procurement process used allowed costs to be cut by between $20 and $150 per tonne for each order.
It described the allegations and the import-related propaganda as “completely baseless”.
“The claims of unprecedented corruption in fertiliser imports are fabricated, misleading, motivated and based on false information. The agriculture ministry strongly protests the posts and reports published on this issue,” the statement said.
Bangladesh distributes around 6.9 million tonnes of fertiliser each year at subsidised rates.
Urea, Triple Super Phosphate (TSP), Diammonium Phosphate (DAP), and Muriate of Potash (MOP) are imported from abroad and supplied nationwide at subsidised prices.
Alongside government imports, the private sector is also allowed to bring in fertiliser.
The ministry pointed to a 2015 notification which says private importers eligible for fertiliser subsidy must be selected in order of the lowest bids submitted.
It said in verifying price rationality, officials compare international market rates published by Argus and Fertecon, as well as rates of fertiliser imported by the Bangladesh Agricultural Development Corporation (BADC) during the same period. The decision of the authorities is deemed final.
Under this method, non-urea fertiliser imports are managed. Each tender requires a company to submit bids for a specific volume -- usually around 30,000 tonnes.
Since the government’s fertiliser demand exceeds that ceiling, multiple companies are awarded contracts for the same type of fertiliser, sometimes with differences of $20 to $150 per tonne or more.
This, the ministry argued, led to government losses and foreign currency waste in the past.
An official from the fertiliser division, speaking on condition of anonymity, said: “By abandoning the old system and introducing this new method, we have saved Tk 321 crore [3.21 billion] for the government. The previous process had loopholes. The same fertiliser under the same tender was being supplied at different inflated rates, which encouraged syndication among importers.”
According to him, after the interim government assumed office, it decided to award purchase orders only to companies agreeing to supply at the lowest price. The system has been in force since the last fiscal year.
In the most recent tender, DAP fertiliser was fixed at $848 per tonne from China, $865 from Russia, and $874 from Morocco, Jordan and Egypt.
The ministry added that due to differences in freight charges depending on location and distance, the CFR prices of the same fertiliser can vary by country.
“There is no scope for confusion in this regard,” it said.
