New SSP fertiliser regime may retain old subsidy structure

The government may come up with a new policy on single super phosphate (SSP), broadly reviving the old one that expired last month, instead of adopting an entirely different regime changing the broad contours of incentives provided earlier.     

The old policy, announced by the government in April 2008, provided for a maximum subsidy of Rs 5,630 per tonne of SSP fertiliser to manufacturers instead of Rs 1,125 per tonne offered earlier.     

"We are not extending any significant incentive under the SSP policy, as it would be a sort of renewal of the earlier policy," a senior Fertiliser Ministry official said.     

The issue is likely to be taken up by the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs at its next meeting, he added.     

However, he refrained from commenting on when and how long the new policy will be in force.     

The fertiliser industry was expecting a major overhaul of the earlier SSP policy after Minister Of State for Fertiliser Srikant Kumar Jena told Parliament last week that the government was condering a new SSP policy, which would be effective from the beginning of July this year.     

"Since the (previous) policy has ended on June 30, the government is considering a new policy for super phosphate fertiliser with effect from July 1, 2009," Jena had said.      

A Fertiliser Ministry official had earlier said though the SSP policy expired in June-end, a new one could "always be imposed with retrospective effect" whenever it is formulated.