Purchase committee clears 11 proposals for sugar, fertiliser and LNG as Shahjalal expansion cost rises

Photo: Collected

The Cabinet Committee on Government Purchase has recommended approval of a total of 11 purchase proposals, including those for sugar, urea, MOP and DAP fertiliser and LNG. The proposals were approved at the purchase committee’s 49th meeting of the current year, held virtually on Tuesday night with Finance Minister Amir Khasru Mahmud Chowdhury in the chair.

Under two proposals of the commerce ministry, the meeting recommended the purchase of a total of 10,000 metric tonnes of sugar in 50kg bags through the open tender method via e-GP. In the first proposal, the price of 5,000 metric tonnes of sugar has been set at Tk 51 crore 47 lakh 50 thousand, that is Tk 102.95 a kg; in the second proposal, the price of the same quantity of sugar is Tk 51 crore 97 lakh 50 thousand, or Tk 103.95 a kg. Meghna Sugar Refinery Limited is the recommended bidder in both.

The third revised proposal of the first phase of the Hazrat Shahjalal International Airport expansion project has also been recommended for approval. Its original contract value was Tk 20,598 crore 64 lakh 84 thousand 699; after a variation of Tk 360 crore 65 lakh 22 thousand 25, the revised contract value has become Tk 20,959 crore 30 lakh 6 thousand 724. Aviation Dhaka Consortium, formed by Japan’s Mitsubishi Corporation and Fujita Corporation and Korea’s Samsung C and T, is the recommended bidder for the project.

In another proposal for consultancy services for the same project, the revised contract value has stood at Tk 1,176 crore 71 lakh 97 thousand 457 including a variation of Tk 405 crore. It has been recommended that the work be given to a joint venture of Japan’s Nippon Koei and Oriental Consultants Global, Singapore’s CPG Consultants and Bangladesh’s Development Design Consultants.

In the case of fertiliser imports, a proposal to buy 80,000 metric tonnes of granular urea from Saudi Arabia’s SABIC Agri-Nutrients Company in the 2026-27 financial year has been recommended; it will cost Tk 220 crore 65 lakh 49 thousand 800, at a rate of 446.67 US dollars a metric tonne.

The proposal to import 42,000 metric tonnes of granular urea from Fertiglobe of the United Arab Emirates has been recommended for post-facto approval. It will cost Tk 275 crore 77 lakh 72 thousand 290, with the price of each metric tonne at 531.67 US dollars.

A proposal to bring 35,000 metric tonnes of MOP fertiliser from Russia’s JSC ‘Foreign Economic Corporation (Prodintorg)’ has also been recommended – at a cost of Tk 166 crore 9 lakh 90 thousand 450, or 383.80 US dollars a metric tonne.

Two proposals to import 80,000 metric tonnes and 40,000 metric tonnes of MOP fertiliser from Canada’s Canadian Commercial Corporation on a G2G basis have also been recommended; in both, the rate for each metric tonne is 382.38 US dollars.

In the case of LNG, the price proposal for importing a total of nine cargoes from Trafigura Pte Limited on a G2G basis from December 2026 to December 2027 has been recommended for approval. The unit price of LNG per MMBtu has been set at JKM-0.10 US dollars.

A proposal to import 40,000 metric tonnes of DAP fertiliser from Saudi Arabia’s Ma’aden in the fifth lot of 2026 has also been recommended; it will cost Tk 425 crore 58 lakh 10 thousand, with the price of each metric tonne at 861.50 US dollars.

On the other hand, the committee has withdrawn the price proposal submitted by China National Energy Engineering and Construction Company Limited (CNEE) for setting up the Kutubjom floating LNG terminal (FSRU) at Maheshkhali in Cox’s Bazar on a G2G basis. The project cost had been estimated at about Tk 12,324 crore over 15 years and about Tk 13,161 crore over 20 years.