Govt to ensure uninterrupted gas supply to fertilisers industries: Khusro

8Minister says urea in Pakistan is being sold at Rs1,800 per bag

Federal Minister for Industries and Production Khusro Bakhtyar Friday said the government had provided Rs400 billion subsidies for the development of the agriculture sector and ensured uninterrupted gas supply to the fertiliser industry to help promote agriculture production in the country.

Addressing a press conference along with the owners of fertiliser industries, the federal minister said the government had also launched a web portal to monitor urea production and supply.

He said the dealers’ names, locations, and truck numbers had been entered in the tracing system by the manufacturers in real-time to help monitor the fertiliser transport. The government was taking all these steps to control the smuggling of urea bags, he added.

“All deputy commissioners have access to data of their districts, and ground staff approaches the dealers and verifies the amount on arrival. Once urea arrives, it is sold at a controlled rate by the dealers under supervision of district/agri administration,” he added.

He said in the international market, urea was being sold at the rate of Rs11,000 per bag whereas, in Pakistan, the price per bag was only Rs1,800.

The minister said two million bags of urea fertiliser had already arrived at the port and if needed, more fertiliser would be imported.

He said tender in compliance with the import decision by the government was issued by the Trading Corporation of Pakistan on October 22, 2021, and opened on November 22, 2021.

He said the government of China had offered a supply of 100,000 tonnes of urea on the government to government basis.

“The Economic Coordination Committee of the Cabinet has approved import which would arrive from 10th to 25th of February 2022 and resultantly, there will be an ample inventory in February-March 2022.”

Khusro said due to effective actions and prompt management there was no stress on prices of urea as it would remain stable, adding that sowing of wheat had been completed in irrigated areas of Punjab and Sindh.

The minister said due to the prevailing rain spell, demand was expected to be on the lower side till January 9, 2022, and during the rain period from January 6 to 9, daily dispatch of the fertiliser remained at 19,000 tonnes.

He said the supply would be increased from 10th to 31st January up to 22,000 tonnes on a daily basis.

He said the current demand was mostly panic-driven and fueled by the middle man which was not historically a part of the supply chain of urea.

He said the farmers should make sure that they would get adequate urea at the controlled price in January, February and March.

“Farmers are requested not to engage in panic buying and avoid purchasing of urea to be used in February and March as this would save the country from price hike and unnecessary struggle to get urea in a long queue,” he added.