ISLAMABAD: The finance ministry has summoned representatives of all commercial banks as they have refused to open letters of credit (LCs) for the import of urea through the Trading Corporation of Pakistan, it is learnt. Last week, the TCP floated tenders for the import of 300,000 tonnes of urea and bids were to be opened on June 30, but the TCP had informed the ministries concerned that all scheduled banks had refused to entertain the tender. Earlier, for the import of 260,000 tons of urea from foreign sources in May, the TCP was not able to open LC in any bank as the State Bank had declared the corporation had over-drafted its limit of Rs110 billion. In a meeting on fast-track import of urea fertiliser for the Kharif season, the SBP’s deputy governor said all five major commercial banks had expressed their inability to open LCs, an official who attended the meeting told The News on Wednesday. In that regard, the finance secretary was approached for arranging the amount and in response representatives of banks were asked to meet the secretary on Thursday, an official said. Total urea requirement for the Kharif season is 2.9 million tons, of which domestic production is 2.5 million tons, leaving a gap of 400,000 tons, which will be met from imports. On June 17, a special cabinet meeting changed its earlier decision of May 19 for involving the private sector in the import of 300,000 tons of urea and has now assigned the task to the National Fertiliser Marketing Limited (NFML) to distribute the imported 650,000 tons of urea for Kharif crops.