Fact hopeful of Rs 991 cr revival package soon

Public sector Fertilisers and Chemicals Travancore (Fact) is hopeful of getting the Rs 991-crore revival package recommended by the Board for Reconstruction of Public sector Enterprises (BRPSE) within two months, a top official today said.

The BRPSE recommendation is expected to come up before the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA) for its final approval.

The revival package includes Rs 441-crore loan and interest write-off and Rs 550-crore working capital, chairman and managing director Jaiveer Srivastava told reporters here. He was hopeful of getting the package within two months.

Fact had put forth a Rs 8,000-crore revival package, which included short-term, medium-term and long-term measures. BRPSE has for the time being only considered short term package for Fact.

The Rs 8,000-crore package includes Rs 5,300-crore urea-ammonia plant, three projects at the Cochin division - a new phosphoric acid plant with 500 tonnes per day (tpd) capacity, a new sulphuric acid plant capacity with 2,000 tpd capacity and the expansion of Factamfos plant at Ambalamedu to 3,000 tpd from the present 2,000 tpd.

On the escalating prices of LNG, which is now being used as feedstock instead of naphtha, he said the company was now getting LNG at $ 21.57 per mmbtu (million metric british thermal unit). The suppliers have said the next consignment would be priced at $ 23.92 per mmbtu, he said adding this would cause huge financial crisis to the cash strapped Fact.