A report following the special investigation into the controversial import of liquid nano-nitrogen fertiliser launched by the Auditor General’s Office as demanded by many parties including the Opposition has now been submitted to the Ministry of Agriculture.
The nano-nitrogen stock being imported from India under the regime of ex President Gotabaya Rajapaksa following the ban he had imposed on the importation of chemical fertiliser was subject to a storm of criticism, where the farming community had confronted that the substance does not fill the requirement of commercial farming at all, and the Opposition had alleged that a massive financial fraud was committed during the process.
The Auditor General’s report on the probe into the alleged fraud has been submitted to the Ministry of Agriculture and the Ministry is expected to provide facts from their perspective, after which the report will be referred to Parliament for further action, revealed Auditor General W.P.C. Wickramarathne.
Under Rajapaksa’s regime, nearly 2.1 million litres of liquid nano-nitrogen fertiliser were imported from the ‘Indian Farmers Cooperatives’ of Gujarat, India, at a price of US $ 12.45 per bottle of 500 millilitres, a value staggeringly four times greater than that of a same bottle sold through the internet for just US $ 3.23, critics pointed out.
The Foreign Exchange rates at the time impelled Sri Lanka to pay Rs. 1867 more per bottle of 500 millilitres, considered of which a hypothetical value of Rs. 7841 million may have been swindled, had the stock been purchased for US $ 12.45 per bottle.
MIAP