State-run Indian Potash Ltd last month offloaded a cargo of urea that was rejected by Pakistan and whose papers were fudged to show that the ship carrying it was coming from Bandar Abbas in Iran rather than Karachi. Chemicals and Fertiliser Minister M K Azhagiri has ordered an independent inquiry into the alleged substandard import and tampering of ship documents.

“It has been reported that the vessel M V St Peter, which has been rejected by Pakistan, is discharging urea at Pipavav port. It is also alleged that the vessel records have been tampered showing last port of call as Bandar Abbas rather than Karachi. The matter is very serious and needs to be investigated immediately,” Azhagiri wrote on Monday.

Azhagiri ordered that the vessel be detained, quality checks be conducted by an independent team under a senior Ministry official and dispatch of urea be “immediately” stopped. But the ship left a day before.

On behalf of the government, IPL bought 32,210 tonnes of urea at $270.5 per tonne from Delhi-based CISC after it was rejected by the Trading Corporation of Pakistan (TCP) because the urea size distribution was lower than the stipulated 90 per cent.

India also follows similar norms where urea particle should be such that at least 90 per cent of it should pass through 2.8 mm sieves. But unlike TCP, whose pre-shipment inspection agent pointed out the anomaly before the cargo left Ukraine’s Yuzhny port, IPL made no such pre-shipment checks.

The ship, St Peter, reached Gwadar port late August but had to move to high seas for more than two weeks as TCP was unwilling to take the consignment because it had 86 per cent size distribution. TCP rejected the consignment after consulting its Ministry of Food and Agriculture and asked Dubai-based supplier Trasfert to replace the cargo.

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