The Hindu Business Line : Cabinet to examine fertiliser policy in Jan

“The draft policy is ready and we will put it up before the Cabinet next month. The policy aims to attract investment in the sector and reduce dependence on imports,” the Minister of Steel, Chemicals and Fertilisers, Mr Ram Vilas Paswan, said on the sidelines of a seminar organised by the Fertiliser Association of India here on Wednesday.

The new policy will be benchmarked to international standards and will encourage healthy competition and efficiency both in production and distribution, he added.

Earlier, addressing the inaugural seminar, the Minister said after Jordan, several other countries were interested in entering into joint venture partnerships with India.

“The availability of gas in the country is expected to improve from 2008–09 onwards. The industry needs to take advantage of this opportunity to add indigenous production capacities, not only to meet the growing requirement in the country but also look at exports.”

According to him, the Government is working out the modalities for encouraging fortified fertilisers to add vital micro-nutrients to the soil and also considering the inclusion of sulphur as a subsidised nutrient in the subsidy regime since there is sulphur deficiency in many regions.

Mr Paswan also hinted that the Government is looking into a uniform freight policy for all subsidised fertilisers in the country on the pattern of the present freight regime for urea.

He, however, expressed concern over the fertiliser industry’s reluctance to import diammonium phosphate (DAP) during the current year. “While the Government has made sincere efforts to address the problems of the fertilisers industry, the industry has not reciprocated as far as DAP imports are concerned,” he added.

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