Increase in prices of fixed subsidy fertilizers like DPA due to rise in rates of main ingredients like Potash, Phosphorous in international market: Mandaviya

Gandhinagar: Union Minister of State for Chemical and Fertilizers Mansukh Mandaviya today said that there was no increase in the price of Urea and only the prices of other fertilizers for which the union government gives nutrient based or fixed subsidy have seen a rise due to hike in the prices of Potash and Phosphorus which were the main ingredients of these including DPA, MOP, NPK and SSP.

Talking to newsmen here today Mandaviya said that the union government has complete control over the price of Urea only and that of DPA, MOP and other phosphate and potash based fertilizers was not under complete control as the later got only nutrient based or fixed subsidy unlike urea for which the amount of subsidy varied to keep its price stable. Phosphorous and Potash were not made in India and all of it used to make fertilizers was imported.

‘Currently as the prices of Phosphorous and Potash in the international markets have gone up, the prices of fertilizers like DPA and others have also gone up. It is not a permanent phenomenon and the prices will come down once the prices of the ingredients come down,’ he said.

He said that the government was currently giving a subsidy of Rs 750 on each bag of urea for which the farmers need to pay only Rs 295. For DAP also the government was giving a fixed subsidy of Rs 550 per bag.

To a query he said that the potash and phosphorous based fertilizers were in decontrolled category since long and from the time of Congress regime.

He also said that urea was the most widely used fertilizer and around 325 lakh tons of it is used across India. In Gujarat on an average 23 lakh ton of it is used while the consumption of others including DPA and others was much less.

Notably, the prices of DPA, NPK and MOP etc has risen by around Rs 60 per bag.

DeshGujarat