GoM approves draft policy on urea price decontrol

06 Aug 2011 Evaluate

The Group of Ministers (GoM) on fertilizers headed by Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee approved the draft policy which allows companies to increase the retail prices urea on the bases of market dynamics. The government on August 05 approved the decontrol of urea prices and allowed fertilizer companies to increase the rate of the important agriculture input prices by up to 10% in the first year of policy.

Currently, the maximum retail price (MRP) of urea is around Rs 5,310 per tonne and which can increase by Rs 500, if the Cabinet approves the draft policy. The domestic urea production has been stagnant at 21 million tonne for some years now and the remaining requirement of 6-7 million tonne is met through imports. Industrial bodies and experts have welcomed this move of government, and they expect the decontrolled price of urea will help boosting the domestic production.  

Last year in April, government had introduced the Nutrient-Based Subsidy Scheme (NBS) for phosphatic and potassic fertilizers such as Di-ammonium phosphate (DAP) and Muriate of Potash (MoP) to balance in use of fertilizers.  The GoM had decided to bring urea under the NBS scheme.

The approved draft policy is made by the Committee of Secretaries (CoS) chaired by Planning Commission member Saumitra Chaudhuri. Under the recommended urea pricing policy, government would provide a subsidy of Rs 4,000 per tonne to gas based urea plants. But, the naptha-based plants would get a higher subsidy under policy and these units would get three years to get itself converted into gas-based.

The draft policy has also suggested national price pooling of natural gas for the fertilizer sector, in the national gas price pooling; the government will measure the subsidy on urea on the basis of weighted average pooled gas price.

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