ISLAMABAD, Pakistan News: Pakistan has scrapped a tender to import 150,000 tonnes of white sugar over problems with the terms of the lowest bid, officials of the Trading Corporation of Pakistan (TCP) said on Thursday.
The tender, issued on Dec. 31, was opened on Saturday and the TCP, which issued the tender, said a non pre-qualified company, World Base Trading FZE, had offered the lowest bid of $723.20 a tonne C&F.
“The bid bond submitted by them was not in accordance with the tender terms,” the TCP said in a statement.
“They were asked to remove the discrepancies from the bid but they failed to do so in spite of the fact that ample opportunities were given to them,” it said.
The tender could, therefore, not be finalised, it said.
TCP chairman Saeed Ahmed Khan told Reuters another tender to import 150,000 tonnes of white sugar issued on Jan. 8 would be opened on Feb. 13 as scheduled.
A total of six bidders took part in the bidding for the scrapped tender, the first of six the TCP has floated since Dec. 31 to import a total of 500,000 tonnes of white sugar.
All the tenders are to be opened this month.
Pakistan went on a buying spree after a forecast the 2009/10 crop would produce about 3 million tonnes of white sugar against annual demand of 4.2 million tonnes.
Pakistan produced 3.2 million tonnes of refined sugar in the 2008/09 crop and the country imported 225,000 tonnes of sugar last year to meet demand.
The TCP is aiming to get the sugar it has already tendered for by mid-May.
The government has encouraged the private sector to import another 750,000 tonnes by waiving excise and sales tax if it is bought and imported before June 1.
But a top TCP official said last week the trading agency would issue tenders in April to import 700,000 tonnes of white sugar if private traders remained wary of using the tax breaks to tap the international market when sugar prices are high
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