December 17, 2019: A consultative meeting on fertilizer issues was convened under the Chairmanship of the Federal Minister for National Food Security & Research, Makhdoom Khusro Bakhtiar on Monday in Islamabad.
Mr. Khusro Bakhtiar, the Federal Minister for NFS&R showed his concern over reduced offtake of Urea and its high prices during current Rabi 2019-20 compared with previous Rabi season.
The Federal Minister showed his satisfaction regarding available stock of Urea and DAP for Rabi season 2019-20. He was much concerned about the gradual increase in prices of DAP despite a decline in prices in the international market and profit margin on import of DAP in detail.
He discussed the cost of domestic urea and undue profiteering by urea manufacturing companies. A detailed discussion was held on the issue of high profit by urea manufacturers.
It was also pointed out that GIDC is being collected from farmers but it is not paid to National Exchequer. It was appraised in the meeting that National Assembly Special Committee on Agricultural Products has assigned a task of evaluation of profit margin of various fertilizer products, especially Urea and DAP.
In the next meeting of the committee, the Competition Commission of Pakistan will present their findings.
It is pertinent to mention that on the proposal of Federal Minister for National Food Security & Research Khusro Bakhtiar, the Cabinet Committee on fertilizer is constituted under the chairmanship of Minister for Planning, Development and Reform which will also look into the high profitability and high prices of both urea and DAP.
