Finance Minister Ishaq Dar has directed the Economic Affairs Division (EAD) to identify a credit line on best possible terms to finance the import of 0.15 million tons urea, official sources told Business Recorder. Giving the details, sources said, the Economic Co-ordination Committee (ECC) of the Cabinet in its meeting held on April 23, 2015 allowed import of 0.1 million tons of urea and had directed the Ministry of Industries and Production to resubmit the case for additional quantity in the next meeting of ECC after assessing the possibility of enhancing domestic production.
In this regard a meeting of the committee constituted by the ECC was called on April 30, 2015 to reassess domestic needs and production. To re-confirm the supply and demand situation of urea, the Fertiliser Review Committee (FRC) was re-convened in the Ministry of Industries and Production on May 4, 2015. The provinces have indicated the following demand for Kharif 2015, which was slightly higher than the previous estimation: (i) Punjab (1.9 million tons); (ii) Sindh (0.747 million tons); (iii) KPK (0.2023 million tons) and (iv) Balochistan(0.15 million tons). The total requirement is estimated to be 2.9993 million tons.
Based on urea consumption during Rabi 2014-15, crop prices and historical trend, urea offtake during Kharif Season 2015 would be 2.8 million tons. Secondly, the fertiliser manufacturers pointed out that domestic production would be 2.425 million tons, lower than the last projection due to closure of one plant. Finally, additional gas supplies to the sector were not being used for urea production. It was accordingly agreed to authorise the import of 0.1 million tons urea by ECC. The government has recently allowed further import of 150,000 tons of urea in order to bridge the gap and build up a sufficient buffer stock. Imported urea will be sold to the growers through corruption tainted National Fertiliser Marketing Limited (NFML), a subsidiary of Ministry of Industries and Production.
Comments
Comments are closed.