The finance ministry has sanctioned Tk 5.49 billion as subsidies to Bangladesh Agricultural Development Corporation (BADC) to help it import fertiliser in the first quarter of the current financial year, officials said.
The BADC, which received Tk 70 billion in subsidies in the last financial year, will get the cash from the Ministry of Agriculture's (MoA) non-development budget, where Tk 90 billion has been earmarked for fertiliser imports and other agricultural activities.
The subsidies will be offered against their import of 0.273 million (273, 633) tonnes of non-urea fertiliser including TSP (Triple Super Phosphate), DAP (Diammonium Phosphate) and MOP (Muriate of Potash), a MoA official said.
He said Tk 2.61 billion has been sanctioned for importing 129746 tonnes of TSP fertiliser from Tunisia and Morocco.
He also said that the corporation will get Tk1.44 billion subsides for import of 51526 tonnes of DAP from Morocco.
The BADC imported 92,361 tonnes of MOP from Canada and Russia for which the MoF has sanctioned Tk1.44 billion as subsidies.
However, Tk0.61 billion has been okayed for other local expenses, the official said.
BADC chairman Md. Anwarul Islam Sikder said the demand for non-urea is increasing gradually, which helped increase production.
He said the demand for TSP, DAP, MOP and MAP fertiliser is now 2.2 million tones, which was less than 1.5 million tonnes a few years back.
He said the country has an adequate stock of both urea and non-urea to cover up the huge demand in the ongoing Boro and Rabi season.
According to the Department of Agriculture Extension (DAE), demand for chemical fertiliser in FY'15 has been estimated at 5.0 million tones, of which urea accounts for 2.8 million tonnes.
More than 80 per cent of the country's fertiliser demand is met through import.
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