The Hindu Business Line : SSP sector seeks hike in subsidy as input costs rise

THE Single Super Phosphate (SSP) manufacturers have urged the Government to immediately announce revised subsidy policy for SSP taking into consideration the increased cost of manufacturing consequent to increase in the prices of raw materials.

Talking to presspersons here today, Mr V. Ravichandran, President and Director of Coromandel Fertilisers, said that the policy is biased against SSP as it is the only fertiliser for which the selling price is fixed by the State Governments, while the concessions or subsidy is determined by the Central Government.

"As a result because of vote politics no State Government is willing to increase SSP selling price and the subsidy had remained fixed since 2002 while cost of manufacturing has increased substantially," he said.

The SSP manufacturers have urged the Government to treat SSP industry at par with the di-ammonium phosphate (DAP) industry since both the fertilisers supply the same phosphate to the plants and so must be treated equally in terms of nutrients, he said.

During the past three years the cost of imported rock phosphate has increased from around $45 per tonne to around $60 per tonne while that for sulphuric acid has gone up from around Rs 1,200 per tonne to around Rs 2,200 per tonne, he said.

All these has resulted in declining of capacity utilisation which currently stands at around 34 per cent, he said and added that if the Government does not take a suitable decision soon many more units might have to close down because of losses.

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