Fertiliser industry awaiting policy: Mallya

UB group Chairman Vijay Mallya today said the fertiliser industry is eagerly awaiting a comprehensive fertiliser policy that will provide clarity going forward and enabling companies to plan their business.
"We are all eagerly awaiting a comprehensive fertiliser policy that will provide clarity going forward. It will enable the fertilizer companies to plan their business for the future including expansion, and I think that certainty will help the fertiliser industry enormously," he told reporters here.
Speaking on the sidelines of the Annual General Meeting of Members of the Mangalore Chemicals & Fertilizers Limited here, he said "We all know that the country is deficient in fertilizer production and it would be in the best interest of the industry if domestic companies ramped up their production with further investment, but are unable to do so in the absence of clear policy."

"This problem of there being no clear long-term policy is something that has been going for the past several years. I hope it is now fixed once in for all," he added.
Stating that Mangalore Chemicals& Fertilizers Limited had already invested about Rs 300 crore in converting from naphtha feed stocks to gas feed stocks; he said "we are absolutely ready; the Gas Authority of India Limited is late in providing gas connectivity to Mangalore. This was promised to us which is the basis on which we made the investment, but it seems as if gas connectivity will be at least two years late."

"So clearly we have requested the government to continue their subsidy policy on naphtha based plants till such time that the other government agency which is GAIL provides us with the gas which we are ready to accept," he added.
To a question why Zuari is a better partner in open offer for MCFL, he said "Zuari in the fertilizer business has the similar product profile to MCFL; it is geographically, strategically and more conveniently located to MCFL. There are joint procurement synergies which we have already experienced, the territories are complementary to each other and so it makes more business sense for us to have supported Zuari in the open offer.