It is worrying that the Ghorashal Palash Urea Fertiliser Factory project is going to take about 48 per cent more cost and two more years for its completion. The project was taken at a budget of Tk 10,460 four years ago, but according to a report yesterday, Bangladesh Chemical Industries Corporation (BCIC) has asked for additional Tk 5,040 for the project. The factory was targetted to open in 2025 with the goal of attaining self sufficiency in urea production. It is very unfortunate that now this delay is going to happen and the project will tax more on the already battered economy of Bangladesh.
For the fertiliser, the Bangladesh government depends on costly imports but distributes it among the farmers at a subsidised rate. But some time ago, the government raised the fertiliser price, apparently in a bid to meet one of the preconditions of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to get a bailout loan package of $ 4.5 billion. Still, the farmers of the country did not get fertiliser from the dealers even paying the newly heightened price. This would surely impact the T-aman production this year.
A country that wants to achieve self-sufficiency in food production, this kind of mismanagement with distribution of this crucial farm input is never desirable. Yet this continues to happen time and again in Bangladesh. Adding to this is the news of the failed deadline of Ghorashal Palash Urea Fertiliser Factory and the increase in the project cost.
According to the report, as reasons for the increased cost are additional expenses for setting up rail and electricity supply lines, hike in loan management, insurance and registration fees, cost increase for constructing residential buildings as well as for buying apparatuses and necessities for trial runs. When a project is delayed – and all government projects in Bangladesh are delayed and it has become a norm – the relevant authorities show all the reasons why it is delayed and why more money is needed. There is no dearth in this supply of reasons.
But did the government ever try to complete a project in time? People now hardly take these pretexts seriously due to the corrupt nature of the government. More delay in a project means more opportunity for corruption in the same project.
However, the Ghorashal Palash Urea Fertiliser Factory project was taken up to produce 2,800 tonnes of fertiliser in a day. Currently, Bangladesh produces 10 lakh tonnes of urea fertiliser, but its annual demand is about 25 lakh tonnes. If the Ghorashal project was completed in time, Bangladesh could have positively saved a lot of foreign currency. But this is now not possible because of the inefficiency and corrupt nature of the government.
