September 7: The government has terminated the contracts of two companies – Sailung Enterprises and Honiko Multiple Private Limited – for failing to supply chemical fertilizers on time. Besides scrapping the contracts, the government has also confiscated the deposits of the two companies.

The state-owned Agriculture Inputs Company Limited (Krishi Samagri Company Limited) had signed separate contracts with the two companies for the supply of 25,000 metric tons of urea each.

As per the agreement, both the companies should have supplied the fertilizers within September 5. But the two private companies have not been able to assure the government-owned company about supplying the fertilizers anytime soon, leading to the termination of the contracts.

More than Rs 90 million deposit of the two companies have also been confiscated by the government.

“We had to take action against the two companies because they were careless despite having adequate time. Therefore we had to terminate the contracts. Their deposits have also been freezed,” said Minister for Agriculture and Livestock Development Ghanashyam Bhusal during a press conference organised at the ministry on Sunday (September 6).

The state-owned company had signed the agreement with Sailung Enterprises on April 24 and with Honiko on April 27. As per the initial agreement, the two companies should have imported the fertilizers within July 23. The government later extended the deadline by 25 days upon the request of the two companies. Minister Bhusal said that the contracts were terminated after the companies failed to supply the fertilizers even after the extended deadline.

Sailung Enterprises is owned by Sharada Prasad Adhikari, who is the landlord of Nepal Communist Party Co-chairman Pushpa Kalal Dahal.

According to Agriculture Inputs Company Limited, the two companies could not furnish any details about the shipment or the vessels used to import the fertilizers despite repeated follow ups.