Govt won't raiseurea price soon

FE Team | Published: October 30, 2007 00:00:00 | Updated: February 01, 2018 00:00:00

FE Report
Agriculture adviser CS Karim said Monday the government has no immediate plan to enhance the existing official prices of urea fertiliser though enhanced subsidy to the item would put additional pressure on budgetary resources.
Karim said this at a press conference in response to an observation made by Industries Secretary Md. Nurul Amin that the country's fertiliser crisis would never end unless its current prices were increased.
"Fertiliser crisis will persist forever. Moreover, the situation could take a serious turn in the future if the official sale prices of urea are not revised upward, at least, to the level of the production cost of the local factories, Nurul Amin, who is also the chairman of fertiliser prices review committee, said.
Not only the state-run fertiliser units have been counting substantial financial losses every year, but also a huge quantity of urea is being smuggled out from the country, mainly due to its prices lower than that in the international market, he observed.

Taking the problem into consideration, the review committee has already recommended an immediate upward adjustment of urea price, Nurul Amin told the press conference.
Disagreeing with Nurul Amin's comment, the agriculture adviser said, "It does not reflect the government's position â€¦ No decision regarding any price enhancement of urea has yet taken by the government.
Briefing the newsmen about the overall fertiliser situation, Senior Information officer of the Agriculture Ministry Abdullah Al Shahin said the government is providing Tk 2,400 as subsidy to one tonne of locally-produced urea while the amount is Tk 25,700 per tonne for the imported one.
The government sells local urea at Tk 4,800 per tonne against its production cost of Tk 7200 while the imported urea is sold at Tk 5,300 per tonne against the import cost at Tk 31,000 per tonne, he mentioned.
The adviser, however, ruled out Monday any valid reason behind the scarcity of fertilisers, especially urea, in the country, saying the government has 'sufficient stock' to cope with the demand for the same.
The government has already taken necessary measurers, including the import of increased volume of urea, establishment of six more godowns for buffer stocks and strengthening of monitoring and supervision, for ensuring the smooth supply of the agri-input to the farmers.
Moreover, Army, Navy, Coast Guard and BDR have been asked to intensify their monitoring activities to check smuggling, if any, he said.
All such steps have been taken to prevent any supply scarcity of fertiliser, especially urea, during the ensuing 'Boro' cropping season, the adviser said, adding that process is underway to introduce cards for distribution of urea from next year.
The press conference was told that at present, the government had a total stock of 4,225,24 tonnes of urea while the volume was 2,80,585 tonnes at same time last year.
A high-powered monitoring committee on fertiliser, headed by education adviser Auyub Quadri, has projected the country's total fertiliser demand at about 2.82 million tonnes for the current fiscal year (2007-08).
Some 1.5 million tonnes of the total demand will be met from the domestic output while the remaining 1.30 million tonnes will be imported from KAFCO and other external sources, the press conference was informed.
Senior officials from the ministries of agriculture, industries and information were present at the press conference, held at the secretariat.