'No hike in urea prices, subsidy to continue'

The government has ruled out any increase in urea prices and said that the subsidy on fertilisers will continue.

The government's stand was announced by Chemicals and Fertilizers Minister Ananth Kumar who informed the Rajya Sabha Friday evening that there is no plan to axe any subsidy on any fertiliser.

The minister pointed out that the government is making every effort to increase production of fertilisers by reviving closed units at Gorakhpur, Talcher and Ramagundam to begin with.

The minister further informed parliament that the government would extend subsidy to the three southern-based fertiliser companies in Mangalore, Chennai and Tuticorin, provided the state governments waive value added tax (VAT) on Nephtha on which these plants are producing fertiliser.

Kumar also called for a comprehensive fertiliser policy, and said that there needs to be a scientific debate on how to rationalise nutrient based subsidy (NBS) to bring down prices of N-P-K (Nitrogen, Phosphorous, and Potash) fertilisers.

"We need to take urea, NPK, organic, bio-fertilisers and micro nutrients into consideration while discussing issues of imbalanced use of chemical fertilisers," he said.

The minister hoped that the announcement in the budget for setting up over a thousand soil testing centres would help farmers to plan the mix of fertilisers that they should use.