Bakhtiar satisfied over fertilizer stocks for Rabi season

ISLAMABAD: A consultative meeting on fertilizer issues was convened on Monday under the chairmanship of the Federal Minister for National Food Security and Research Makhdoom Khusro Bakhtiar.

A detailed briefing was presented by the Assistant Chief, National Fertilizer Development Center (NFDC), Islamabad. The federal minister showed his concern over reduced off-take of urea and its high prices during current Rabi 2019-20 season compared with previous year.

Bakhtiar showed his satisfaction regarding available stock of urea and DAP for Rabi season 2019-20. He expressed concern about gradual increase in prices of DAP despite decline in prices in international market and profit margin on import of DAP.

He discussed the cost of domestic urea and profiteering by urea manufacturing companies. A detailed discussion was held on the issue of high profit margin by urea manufacturers.

It was also pointed out that Gas Infrastructure Development Cess (GIDC) is being collected from farmers but it is not paid to the national exchequer.

The meeting was apprised that National Assembly Special Committee on Agricultural Products has assigned a task of evaluation of profit margin of various fertilizer products particularly urea and DAP. The Competition Commission of Pakistan will present their findings in the next meeting of the committee.

It is pertinent to mention that on the proposal the cabinet committee on fertilizer is constituted under the chairmanship of Minister for Planning, Development and Reform Asad Umar which will also look into the high profitability and high prices of both urea and DAP.