The overall fertiliser production at the country's six urea factories is being hampered seriously due to lack of reforms and uninterrupted gas supply to these factories, officials said.
The six factories under the Bangladesh Chemical Industries Corporation (BCIC) produce urea fertiliser. The government in 2013 re-fixed the price of urea at Tk 14,000 per tonne at factory gate, they said, adding that earlier, the price of per tonne urea was Tk 18,000 at factory gate.
But in absence of uninterrupted and necessary gas supply to the factories, it is not possible for the authority concerned to produce urea fertiliser as per expectations. As a result, the volume of losses of the state-owned factories has been ballooning every year, the officials said.
Lifespan of most factories has expired long ago. So, massive reforms of the factories are badly needed now. But it is not possible to take any move on reforms due to financial crunch, they mentioned.
Fertiliser production by those factories has been decreasing every year, according to BCIC data.
Chittagong Urea Fertiliser Ltd (CUFL) produced 61,150 tonnes of urea fertiliser while Urea Fertiliser Factory Ltd (UFFL) 154,027 tonnes, Natural Gas Fertiliser Factory (NGFF) 17,965 tonnes and Polash Urea Fertiliser Factory Ltd (PUFFL) 56,845 tonnes in the fiscal year (FY) 2013-14.
On the other hand, the production cost of per tonne urea was TK 28,803, Tk 20,080, Tk 37,398 and Tk 14,914 respectively. Besides, the total losses incurred by the four factories stood at Tk 231.39 billion during the period, the data mentioned.
The volume of urea fertiliser production by CUFL, UFFL and NGFF were 32,772 tonnes, 162,236 tonnes and 1,056 tonnes respectively from July to March of the just-concluded FY, the BCIC data added.
The three factories suffered losses of Tk 123.62 billion during the period of the last FY, the data showed.
Preferring anonymity, a high official of the BCIC told the FE, "The authority concerned should urgently release over Tk 35 billion as subsidy to continue with the production activities. Otherwise, production of the factories would be stopped in future."
BCIC Chairman Mohammad Iqbal couldn't be reached over phone for his comment on the matter.
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