Today Agri News (fertilizer)

Year End Review- 2017 

MINISTRY OF CHEMICALS & FERTILIZER 

DEPARTMENT OF FERTILIZERS

 (1) UREA PRICING POLICY – 2015: - 

New Urea Policy – 2015 was notified on 25^th May, 2015:- 

1.     to maximize indigenous urea production;
2.    to promote energy efficiency in the urea units; and
3.   to rationalize the subsidy burden on the Government of India 

•   Concession based pricing upto Reassessed Capacity (RAC) based on cost-plus approach. MRP fixed at Rs 5360/MT plus 5% of MRP for NCU.
•         Beyond 100 % of RAC, units to get variable cost plus lowest fixed cost of all urea units, subject to IPP plus incidental charges.

Production of urea during 2016-17

·           The production of urea during the year 2016-17 was 242.01 LMT, which is significantly higher than the production of urea during 2012-13 (225.75LMT) and 2013-14(227.15 LMT)

(2) NEEM COATING OF UREA:-

•   100 % Neem Coated production made mandatory on 25.05.2015.
•      100 % of Neem Coating achieved
•       1^st September, 2015: indigenous urea
•       1^st December, 2015: imported urea

(3) INTRODUCTION OF 45 KG.UREA BAGS REPLACING THE EXISTING 50 KG. BAGS:- 

Vide Notification dated 4^thSeptember, 2017, it has been decided by the Government, to introduce 45 Kg Bag of urea replacing the existing 50 Kg bag.

(4) NEW INVESTMENT POLICY: - 

Under the provisions of New Investment Policy (NIP)- 2012 read with its amendment, Matix Fertilizers & Chemicals Limited(Matix) has set up a CBM based Greenfield Ammonia-Urea complex at Panagarh, West Bengal with the installed capacity of 1.3 MMT per annum. The commercial production of Matix has started on 1^stOctober, 2017.

(5) REDUCTION IN THE RATES OF P&K FERTILIZERS:- 

The Department had encouraged the Fertilizer companies to reduce the rates of P&K fertilizers which resulted in reduction in the MRP of DAP, MOP and Complex fertilizers by Rs. 125/, Rs, 250/- and Rs. 50/- respectively per 50 kg bag from June 2016. The prices of DAP have again been reduced by Rs. 65/- per 50 kg during December, 2016.

(6) REMOVAL OF THE MINIMUM ANNUAL PRODUCTION OR MINIMUM CAPACITY UTILIZATION CRITERIA FOR SSP UNITS :- 

It has been decided to do away with the provision of mandatory 50% capacity utilization or minimum production of 40000 MT for SSP units to be eligible for subsidy.

(7) REVIVAL OF SINDRI & GORAKHPUR UNITS OF FCIL AND BARAUNI UNIT OF HFCL:-

 Cabinet in its meeting held on 13^th July 2016 approved to revive Gorakhpur, Sindri & Barauni units by means of a Special Purpose Vehicle (SPV) of Public Sector Units namely, National Thermal Power Corporation, Coal India Limited, Indian Oil Corporation Limited and Fertilizer Corporation India Limited/Hindustan Fertilizer Corporation Limited, through “nomination route”. Accordingly, a SPV by name Hindustan Urvarak & Rasayan Limited (HURL) has been formed.      

Earlier, Cabinet in its meeting held on 25.05.2016 approved Financial Restructuring of HFCL by way of waiver of the GoI loans and the outstanding interest on GoI loan.  This enabled HFCL to get de registered from the purview of BIFR and paving the way for revival of closed units of HFCL.

The present status of revival of Gorakhpur, Sindri and Barauni units is as under:

1. Pre project activities are under progress. The following pre-project activities have been completed in respect of all the three projects:

                                i.            Pre-feasibility

                              ii.            Geo technical investigation and topographic studies

The above three projects likely to start production by October 2020.

(8) MODEL FERTILIZER RETAIL SHOP:-

• In the Budget 2016-17, announcement was made for opening up of 2000 Model Fertilizers Retail Shop over a period of three years.
• It will provide mandatory services like selling of quality fertilizers at genuine rates, soil testing, seed testing, promotion of balanced use of nutrients etc. 
• It will also provide some optional services like hiring of equipment such as tractors, laser levelers, rotavator, crop harvester and thrashers, hiring of sprayers, sale of small implements like spades and sickles etc. 

·         2000 Model Fertilizers Retail Shops have been made operational up to the month of May, 2017.

(9) POLICY ON PROMOTION OF CITY COMPOST: -

·         Policy for promotion of City Compost has been notified by the Department of Fertilizers on 10.2.2016 wherein Market Development Assistance (MDA) of Rs. 1500/MT has been provided for scaling up production and consumption of City Compost.

·         Manufacturing companies allowed to undertake direct sale of city compost to farmers. Guidelines for release of MDAon direct sale issued on 9th January, 2017. Required software for routing of MDA through FMS and Mobile Fertilizer Management System (mFMS) rolled out.

·         A Committee of Joint Secretaries of Department of Fertilizers, Ministry of Urban Development and Department of Agriculture set up for coordination.

·         The Fertilizer Companies have adopted 372 villages for promoting the use of City Compost. 

·         State Level Steering Committee for promotion of City Compost constituted in 11 States.

·         96584 MT of Compost Co-marketed in 2016-17 by fertilizer companies. During 2017-18 (April to November, 2017) the fertilizer marketing companies has co-marketed about 90,733 MT of city compost and during the month of November, 2017 it was 19,740 MT.

·         Vide O.M. dated 7^thSeptember, 2017, Fertilizes Marketing Companies also allowed for Bulk Sale of city compost and manufacturing companies for Bagged Sale of city compost.

(10) DIRECT BENEFIT TRANSFER SCHEME IN FERTILIZER SUBSIDY   SCHEME AND ITS EEXPECTED BENEFITS TO FARMERS: -

·         The Pilot project has beenimplemented in 17 districtsout of the projected 19 districts.

·         The deployment of PoS machines and training of retailers is going on in the remaining 2 districts.

·         The Department has chalked out a detailed plan of action for Pan-India rollout of the DBT in Fertilizers scheme, based on the preparedness of the State Governments and deployment of PoS devices by fertilizer companies.

·         A total of 2,04,996 no. of PoS devices needs to be deployed amongst which 1,82,898 devices have been received and1,45,968 devices have been deployed all over the country.

·         Different states/U.T.s have been put on Go-Live mode w.e.f. 1^st September, 2017.

·         As on date, 14 States/UTs have been brought under DBT Framework.

·         The tentative dates for phase-wise roll out of National level DBT are tabulated below.

S. No	Name of  States / UT's	GO Live Timeline
1	NCT of Delhi	1st September, 2017
2	Mizoram, Daman & Diu,  Dadra Nagar Haveli, Manipur, Nagaland, Goa, Puducherry	1st October, 2017
3	Rajasthan, Uttarakhand, Maharashtra, Andaman & Nicobar Islands, Assam, Tripura	1st November, 2017
4	AP, Haryana, Punjab, Chhattisgarh and MP	1st December,2017
5	Kerala, Bihar, Karnataka, J&K, Jharkhand, Telangana, WB, Odisha, UP, Gujarat, HP and TN	1st January 2018

      
11.)Special Banking Arrangement (SBA) of Rs.10,000 crores has been approved in Budget 2017 to clear fertilizer subsidy dues. Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA)chaired by the Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi, has accorded the ex-post facto approval for implementation of SBA.