NEW DELHI: The Union Government on Wednesday announced that there would be no rise in the price of fertilisers during the upcoming kharif season.
The government is said to have already approved Rs 1.08 lakh crore for fertiliser subsidy. Of that, Rs 78,000 crore have been earmarked for subsidy on urea; and Rs 30,000 crore for diammonium phosphate, popularly known as DAP.
An insider in the Chemicals and Fertilisers Department informed that the decision of not hiking fertiliser prices was taken keeping in mind the General Election next year.
Punjab has the highest per hectare consumption of chemical fertilisers in the country and is followed by Haryana. Currently, the Centre gives Rs 2,126 subsidy on each bag of urea and Rs 2,461 on each bag of DAP. Farmers buy a urea bag at Rs 276 and DAP at Rs 1,350.
“There will be no rise in MRP of fertilisers. Farmers will continue to get those at the same price,” said Union Fertiliser Minister, Mansukh Mandaviya, on Wednesday.
Amid the fears of fertiliser shortage in the country, the Union Government said that they already have enough stock of fertilisers to cater to the demand of 12 crore farmers in the country.
Mandaviya said that they had a total of 156 lakh metric tonnes (LMT) of fertiliser in the country for kharif season.