New Fertiliser Policy Soon

Addressing a seminar on `Fertiliser and agriculture-emerging compulsions here yesterday, Mishra said the government will review the entire fertiliser policy before preparing a new one.

The government is market-friendly but the market is not friendly to the government. When India and China go to the international market, prices go up exhorbitantly, he said.

He said a high-powered committee will be constituted to go into various aspects of the industry, including reasons for the fall in agricultural output and imbalance in the use of fertilisers.

Minister of state for chemicals and fertilisers Sis Ram Ola said the ministry will initiate a dialogue with the government for a solution to their long-pending demands.

 

He wanted the industry to explore possibilities for setting up joint ventures abroad or using alternative feedstock.

Fertiliser Associat- ion of India chairman P R Sundar- avadivelu said the active involvement of the state governments in the administration was creating problems for the industry.

With the state government delaying in notifying prices, sales get

suspended.

For kharif 1996, most of the states notified prices only in July-August, by which time the peak demand was already over.

He said the states continued to delay submitting certified bills of the industry for claiming the subsidy amount.

The problem was further compounded by delays in the agriculture ministry either due to budgetary constraints or due to procedural problems. This had led to non-payment of over Rs 900 crore due to the industry.

The non-payment had resulted in shortfall of production of di-ammoniam phosphate (DAP) by about 3.5 lakh tonnes this year compared with last year. The seminar was organised by Fertiliser Association of India (FAI).