Union Minister of Chemicals and
Fertilizers, Shri Ananth Kumar addressed the media here today and appraised the
gathering about the achievements of Department of Chemicals, Fertilizers and
Pharmaceuticals during the last three years. Minister of
State for Chemicals & Fertilizers, Shipping, Road Transport & Highways,
Shri Mansukh Lal Mandaviya was also present on the occasion.
Speaking on budget allocations for the
Fertilizer sector, the Minister said that the overall budget allocation for the
Department of Fertilizer for the year 2017-18 is 74,235 crores. He added that
Fertilizers, along with Power, has been the torchbearer of achievement of this
Government. It has been one of the fastest growing sectors in the last quarter.
Further, to reduce the burden of fertilizer subsidy backlogs, a Special Banking
Arrangement of Rs. 10000 crores has been approved in this Budget to clear
fertilizer subsidy dues, the Minister informed.
Shri Ananthkumar stated that the
Government has taken key measures to make the country self-sufficient in urea
and other fertilizers like promoting energy efficiency in urea production,
maximizing indigenous urea production, timely import of urea and other
fertilizers, prepositioning of fertilizers with the States during lean season
to ensure adequate supply in the season and rationalizing the subsidy. Such steps have resulted in highest ever production of 245 LMT
of urea previous year, without adding additional capacity. Indigenous
urea as well as imported urea have been neem coated. This has resulted in an increase
in farm yield with less urea required and helped check black marketing and
hoarding of urea, he added.
Regarding the revival of the Gorakhpur,
Sindri units of FCIL and Baruni unit of HFCL, the Minister informed that approval
of the Cabinet has been obtained to revive the three units. Cabinet
approval has also been obtained for setting up of new ammonia urea complex at
Namrup within existing premises of Brahmaputra Valley Fertilizers Corporation
Limited. Further, the Talcher plant will be the first ever
unit to be revived based on the coal gasification technology, he added.
Keeping in pace with the international
market, the Department has engaged fertilizers companies to reduce the prices
of DAP, MOP and complex fertilizers by Rs. 125, 250 &
50 respectively per 50 kg bag from June, 2016. Prices of
DAP has again been reduced by Rs. 65 per 50kg during
December, 2016.
Informing about the implementation of
policy of promotion of city compost, Shri Ananthkumar said that the Government
of India approved policy on promotion of city compost in which Marketing
Development Assistance (MDA) of Rs. 1500/MT has been provided for scaling of
production and consumption of city compost. A budget
provision of Rs. 15 crores has been made for releasing the
MDA during 2017-18 on sale of city compost.
Speaking about the Direct Benefit
Transfer in fertilizer subsidy payment it was informed by the Hon’ble
Minister that a decision to implement the DBT in fertilizer sector was
announced during the budget speech of 2016-17 with a view
to improve service delivery to farmers. The proposed DBT
model in fertilizers is different from conventional system of continue to
receive urea at statutory price and P&K fertilizers at subsidized prices in
the market. The fertilizers companies used to receive
subsidy on receipt of fertilizes at the district, will now get subsidy after
the fertilizers are sold to farmers/ beneficiaries by the
retailers to point of sale (POS) machines
through biometric authentication.
In the Pharmaceutical sector, the
Minister informed that under the Pradhan Mantri Bhartiya Janaushadhi Pariyojana
(PMBJP) over 760 Jan Aushadhi Kendras are functioning across the country. With
the Government’s target to achieve 3000 JAKs, every tehsil would have one JAK
soon. Currently over 450 medicines and 150 health supplements are available at
around one-third the price of branded drugs at the JAKs. Further, the Minister
that Medical devices parks are coming up at four locations including
Vishakhapatnam, Baddi (Himachal Pradesh) and others in Gujarat and Telangana.
Shri Kumar also informed about the coming up of National Institutes of
Pharmaceutical Education and Research (NIPER), the latest been set up at
Jhalawar, Rajasthan. These institutes would lead to path breaking research in
pharma sector and give a boost to creating a strong force of pharma scientists
in the country.
Talking about achievements in Chemicals
& Petrochemicals sector, Shri Kumar informed about the focus of the
government on establishing Central Institute of Plastics Engineering &
Technology (CIPET) and Petroleum, Chemicals and Petrochemicals Investment
Regions (PCPIRs) and plastic parks to give a boost to the Make in India mission.
This step would lead to the generation of over 39 lakh employments
opportunities in times to come, he added. Answering a question on strategic
sales of Fertilizer PSUs, Shri Kumar informed that strategic sale is a method
of utilizing the excess land resources available with loss making fertilizer
PSUs to mitigate all liabilities and aid in the revival of the plant in turn.
This would have no effect on the availability of affordable medicines in the
market, he added.
Other dignitaries present at the
occasion were Shri Anuj Kumar Bishnoi, Secretary Chemicals &
Petrochemicals, Shri Jai Priye Prakash, Secretary, Pharmaceuticals, Smt.
Bharathi Sihag, Secretary, Fertilizers, along with other senior officers of the
Ministry.
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VM
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