New Delhi: The Fertiliser Ministry on Friday said there is no plan to deregulate urea.
It also projected that demand of urea would increase to 35.30 million tonnes by 2019-20 from 32.85 million tonnes in 2015-16.
"The Department of Fertilisers has no proposal to deregulate urea," Minister of State for Chemicals and Fertilisers Hansraj Gangaram Ahir said in a written reply to Rajya Sabha.
The MRP (maximum retail price) of urea is controlled by the government and is fixed at Rs 5,360 per tonne. The difference between the cost of production and MRP of urea is provided as subsidy to manufacturers.
However, the government had decontrolled Phosphatic & Potassic (P&K) fertilisers in April 2010 and implemented Nutrient Based Subsidy (NBS) policy.
Under NBS, the subsidy on decontrolled P&K fertilisers is determined for each nutrient on per kg basis and fixed by the government annually. Retail price is fixed by producers.
In reply to another query, he said the urea demand during April-February period of this fiscal stood at 29.65 million tonnes, while supply was 28.67 million tonnes and sales were 28.41 million tonnes.
In March, urea demand is seen at 1.02 million tonnes.
The minister also informed that urea demand is projected at 32.85 million tonnes in 2015-16, 33.67 million tonnes in 2016-17, 33.75 million tonnes in 2017-18, 34.53 million tonnes in 2018-19 and 35.30 million tonnes in 2019-20.
Demand for DAP (di-ammonium phosphate) is estimated at 13.01 million tonnes in 2019-20, up from 12.21 million tonnes in 2015-16, he said.
"The gap between demand and indigenous production is fulfilled through import. The cost of imported fertilisers is nearly same as that of domestic production," he added.
The minister informed that ONGC and Chambal Fertilisers and Chemicals Ltd (CFCL) have proposed to implement a greenfiled ammonia/urea fertiliser project on a suitable site near ONGC's newly found gas fileds at Khubal in North Tripura district.
"A memorandum of understanding (MoU) was signed between Tripura government, ONGC and CFCL on April 9, 2013," Ahir said.
