Centre mulling new SSP policy; to be effective July 1

The government is mulling over a new policy for single super phosphate fertiliser, which will be effective from the beginning of this month.

"Since the (previous) policy has ended on June 30, this year, the government is considering a new policy for super phosphate fertiliser with effect from July 1, 2009," Minister of State for Fertilisers Srikant Kumar Jena told Lok Sabha today in a written reply.

A Fertiliser Ministry official had earlier said even though the SSP policy expired on June-end, it could "always be imposed with retrospective effect".

Concession for the SSP was earlier provided on the basis of input prices of rock phosphate/sulphur and the MRP of the fertiliser was fixed uniformly at Rs 3,400 per tonne across the country.

Separately, Jena said his ministry has not received any specific request to provide subsidy directly to farmers.

"There has been no specific request to grant subsidy on fertilisers directly to farmers. However, there has been proposals from stakeholders, including the industry, to review the current fertiliser subsidy regime and look at various alternatives, including direct subsidy to farmers," he said.

Moreover, no decision has yet been taken on the issue of providing subsidy on nutrients of fertilisers, proposed in the Budget 2009-10, the minister added.

At present, fertiliser subsidy is granted on the MRP of fertilisers and not on any nutrients.