Govt may approve only 4-5 proposals for increasing urea output 29/12/2014

Govt may approve only 4-5 proposals for increasing urea output
29/12/2014 00:20
Government is likely to approve only 4-5 proposals out of 12 which were received from the urea manufacturers to increase domestic output by setting up new plants and scaling up capacity of existing facilities, reported PTI.
Under the New Investment Policy, which was notified in October this year, the Fertiliser Ministry has received 12 proposals from the fertiliser companies, and out of which two proposals are for setting up new units and rest for capacity expansion of existing plants.
"We will review all the proposals in January," Fertiliser Secretary J K Mohapatra told PTI.
Asked about the number of proposals to be approved, the secretary declined to comment.
Sources, however, said that a maximum of 4-5 proposals would be approved to make India self-sufficient in production of urea, which is still under the government control.
The Centre in April 2010 had decontrolled the phosphatic and potassic (P&K) fertilisers, like DAP and MOP, by giving freedom to manufacturers to fix prices.
At present, the annual domestic demand of urea is around 30 million tonnes, while the production is around 22 million tonnes. The gap is met through imports.
A panel of secretaries has been formed to take decisions on various issues related to the implementation of urea investment policy, including the approval of proposals for urea capacity expansion through greenfield and brownfield routes.
The panel is being headed by the Fertiliser Secretary and secretaries of Expenditure, Petroleum, Planning Commission and Agriculture are other members.
Under the policy, eight private companies including Zuari Agro Chemicals, Indo-Gulf Fertilisers, Chambal Fertilisers, Bharat Coal Chemicals and Nagarjuna Fertilizers and Chemicals Ltd have submitted proposals. Also, four PSUs -- Rashtriya Chemicals and Fertilizers (RCF), GNFC, GSFC and FACT -- have applied under the policy.
Private players are required to furnish bank guarantee of Rs 300 crore for each project, while the public sector firms are exempted from paying any bank guruantee.
Bank guarantees have been sought under the new policy to ensure that only serious players apply.
Besides these proposals, the government is also looking at revival of 2-3 closed state-run fertiliser plants.

Fertiliser sales may see 3-7% Y-o-Y growth in FY15: ICRA 19/12/2014

Fertiliser sales may see 3-7% Y-o-Y growth in FY15: ICRA
19/12/2014 00:36
Fertiliser sector's performance is expected to improve in FY15, primarily on account of normal monsoon, stable operating environment and hopes of reforms by the Centre, says a research report by ICRA.
Fertiliser sale volumes are likely to witness a Y-o-Y growth of 3-7 per cent in FY15. Urea sales are expected to drop by 3-5 per cent, while those of Phosphatic and Potassic (P&K) fertilisers likely to grow by 15-20 per cent, it said according to a PTI report.
Overall sales volume of fertilisers improved by 3 per cent Y-o-Y to 29.54 MMT during the first seven months of the current fiscal, driven by a healthy 17 per cent expansion in sale of P&K to 13.3 MMT.
The P&K sales growth was driven by relatively low opening inventory levels vis-a-vis previous years and low base effect. Imports picked up in Q2 FY15 resulting in 21 per cent jump in imported volumes of P&K, the research outfit said.
The fertiliser industry is likely to see a robust performance this fiscal on account of normalisation of system inventories, reasonable monsoon in most parts of the country and a stable operating environment, it said.
Expectations of reforms from the new government, stable currency rates, modest global prices of fertilisers and key inputs too will boost the sector, it said.
Besides, the cash flow issues for the industry are expected to ease to some extent as subsidy flow has eased during YTD FY15 and the government has approved a Special Banking Arrangement for the sector.
The lower-than-anticipated gas price increase has also come as a breather to the fertiliser industry as it will lead to limited increase in the blockage of working capital in the form of subsidy.
However, the issue of gas availability for P&K manufacturers remains and it needs to be seen how the Centre resolves the issue going forward, ICRA Research said.
On the other hand, urea sales declined by 7 per cent during the April-October period. However, ICRA Research noted that urea sales volume was almost equivalent to figures seen in the same period during FY12 and FY13. This implies FY14 was an aberration and sales remain at normal levels, it stated.
The shrinkage in urea sales volumes has also been on account of lower imports and limited utilisation of Nagarjuna Fertilisers & Chemicals Ltd plants during Q2 FY15.

Govt encourages use of organic fertilisers 18/12/2014

Govt encourages use of organic fertilisers
18/12/2014 15:59
Government is promoting use of organic fertilisers and said, studies have shown that farm yields have not fallen where use of chemical fertilisers was restricted, said the media report. Rural Development Minister Birender Singh told Lok Sabha a scheme to empower woman farmers has made positive impact as it supplements their income and use of manures like cow dung is encouraged under the scheme. "Yields have not gone down. It has come up... where chemical fertilisers were not used," he said during Question Hour. Singh said government has identified over 10 crore houses where women were involved in farming and eight crore such households could be covered by Mahila Kisan Sashaktikaran Pariyojna ( Woman Farmers Empowerment Scheme). Three crore of them are "ultra poor", he said. Government has so far approved 56 such projects, he said. Singh also said government would supply drinking water across the country by 2022 and 90 per cent households would be covered by piped water