India's 2009-10 fertiliser subsidy bill lower at 64,932 crore: minister
07 May 2010
The government has spent Rs64,032.30 crore by way of providing fertiliser subsidy to farmers in the financial year 2009-10, against Rs99.494.71 crore (Rs79494.71 crore in cash and Rs20,000 crore in the form of bonds) made during the financial year 2008-09.
The subsidy outgo in the year 2008-09 was more because of higher prices of finished fertilisers and raw material in the international market, minister of state for chemicals and fertilizers Srikant Kumar Jena informed the Rajya Sabha today.
He said there have been reports of smuggling of fertilisers from India to neighbouring countries, mainly to avail of the subsidy and the government has alerted state governments and para military forces to keep a vigil and to check any smuggling of fertilisers outside the country.
On the trend of consumption of major fertilisers, the minister said the sales of DAP, MOP and NPK fertilizers during 2009-10 were higher than those compared with the sales during 2008-09, whereas in the case of urea, the sales during 2009-10 have been lower than that compared with the sales during 2008-09.
The minister also gave details of the overseas joint ventures set up by Indian fertiliser companies abroad.
He said the Indian Farmers Fertiliser Cooperative Limited IFFCO has entered into a joint venture agreement with Jordan Phosphate Mining Company (JPMC), in December 2007 for production of phosphoric acid in Jordan. The estimated project cost is $682 million and the capacity of plant will be 0.45 million tonnes per annum and the production is likely to commence in the year 2013.