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Steps soon to improve fertiliser availability

KOCHI: Union Fertiliser Ministry is considering a slew of measures to improve fertiliser availability in the country, including a new investment policy for the sector and revival of eight units of Fertiliser Corporation of India and Hindustan Fertiliser Corporation Limited.

Work for reviving the units will begin shortly, said Minister for Fertilisers Ramvilas Paswan here on Saturday at a function organised to lay the foundation for a joint venture between Fertilisers and Chemicals Travancore (FACT) and Rashtriya Chemicals and Fertilisers (RCF) for making wall panels from phosphogypsum.

He said that the government, concerned at the well-being of the farmers, had not revised retail prices over the last four years despite steep rise in manufacturing costs and international prices.

The delivered cost of imported urea is about Rs.25,000 a tonne but urea is sold to farmers at Rs.4,830 a tonne.

The case is similar for other products such as DAP and MoP implying that between 70 and 80 per cent of the delivered cost of fertiliser products are subsidised. This has seen the subsidy bill soaring to nearly Rs.1 lakh crore, said Mr. Paswan.

The government is also taking other steps to promote fertiliser consumption to ensure food security.

These steps include normal subsidy regime for SSP from May1, a subsidy of Rs.5,630 a tonne for SSP manufactured from imported rock and a subsidy of Rs.3,650 for SSP made from indigenous rock.

The Minister also said that FACT and Indian Potash Limited (IPL) will enter into an understanding for supply of raw materials worth Rs. 400 crore a quarter for the coming three years. This will ensures that FACT overcomes shortage of working capital.

The Memorandum of Understanding between FACT and IPL will be signed soon, said the Minister.

Deloitte, an international consulting company, has submitted a report on FACT cutting costs.

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