Govt fertiliser policy leading to sickness: Prabhu

Prabhu said higher MRP would amount to a higher outgo.

By PTI | Oct 04, 2006, 03.30 PM IST

NEW DELHI: Asserting that the government's fertiliser policy is leading to sickness of domestic industry, former chemical and fertiliser minister and Shiv Sena MP Suresh Prabhu has asked Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to ensure large fertiliser import subsidies and enhanced investment in the sector.

"A number of policy initiatives under government's consideration are not in the public domain," Prabhu said in a letter to Singh and urged him to personally look at policies such as agriculture and farm inputs like fertilisers.

He said restricting subsidy on imported fertiliser to the level of indigenous production cost would mean a higher MRP for the imported fertiliser, which would result in disparity in price structure.

Prabhu said higher MRP would amount to a higher outgo.

Efforts should be made to make them more transparent, rational and dynamic in the current competitive scenario, he said adding "the current government policies are leading the fertiliser industry to sickness".

"The policy framework should be re-oriented to encourage productivity and cost effectiveness and ensure reasonable returns to encourage the much-needed large financial investment for increasing the domestic fertiliser production," he said in the letter.

"This would imply that farmers will have to spend more on this essential input, the cost of which will not get compensated in the costing mechanism of Commission for Agricultural Costs and Prices (CACP)," he said.

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Govt fertiliser policy leading to sickness: Prabhu

Prabhu said higher MRP would amount to a higher outgo.

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