Govt will deal strictly with all involved in ‘artificial shortage’ of urea: PM

ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Imran Khan has said that there is no shortage of urea and the country has 25,000 tonnes daily production of urea whereas those involved in creating artificial shortage of urea and other commodities will be dealt with an iron hand.

Chairing a meeting on Friday, the prime minister said that the country had record bumper crops of wheat, sugarcane, cotton and maize during last year and the farmers earned Rs822 billion additional income during fiscal year 2020-21 due to agriculture-friendly policies of the present government. The farmers purchase more urea by additional income, he added.

The meeting was attended by Energy Minister Muhammad Hammad Azhar, Finance Ministe Shaukat Fayyaz Tarin, Industries Minister Makhdoom Khusro Bakhtiar, information Minister Ch Fawad Hussain, Minister for National Food Security Syed Fakhar Imam, MOS on Information & Broadcasting Farrukh Habib, SAPM on Political Communication Dr Shehbaz Gill and senior officers concerned.

The prime minister said, “The government is focused on providing adequate quantities of fertilizer for maximum wheat production to ensure food security”.

“The availability of fertilizer to farmers, especially in the next three weeks, is very crucial to have a bumper wheat crop,” he added. He directed the provincial chief secretaries to overcome hoarding, smuggling and buying of urea by middlemen outside the fertilizer supply chain through district administration authorities. He also directed all the authorities concerned to work with all stakeholders to ensure adequate supply of urea to the farmers to achieve record wheat production this year.

Separately, while addressing a press conference along with the owners of fertilizer industries, Federal Minister for Industries and Production Khusro Bakhtyar Friday said the government had provided Rs400 billion subsidy for the development of agriculture sector and ensured uninterrupted gas supply to the fertilizer industry to help promote agriculture production in the country.

The federal minister said the government had also launched a web portal to monitor urea production and supply.

He said dealers’ names, locations and truck numbers had entered in the ‘tracing system’ by the manufacturers in real time to help monitor the fertilizer transport. The government was taking all these steps to control smuggling of urea bags, he added.

“All Deputy Commissioners have access to data of their districts and ground staff approaches the dealers and verifies the amount on arrival. Once Urea arrives, it is sold at controlled rate by the dealers under supervision of district/Agri administration,” he added.

He said in the international market, urea was being sold at the rate of Rs11,000 per bag whereas in Pakistan, the price per bag was only Rs1,800.

The minister said two million bags of urea fertilizer had already arrived at port and if needed, more fertilizer would be imported.

He said tender in compliance to the import decision by the government was issued by the Trading Corporation of Pakistan on October 22, 2021 and opened on November 22, 2021.
He said the government of China had offered supply of 100,000 tons of urea on government to government basis.

“The Economic Coordination Committee of the Cabinet has approved import which would arrive from 10th to 25th of February 2022 and resultantly, there will be an ample inventory in February-March 2022.”

Khusro said due to effective actions and prompt management there was no stress on prices of urea as it would remain stable, adding sowing of wheat had been completed in irrigated areas of Punjab and Sindh.

The minister said due to the prevailing rain spell, demand was expected to be on the lower side till January 9, 2022 and during rain period from January 6 to 9, daily dispatch of the fertilizer remained at 19,000 tons.

He said the supply would be increased from 10th to 31st January up to 22,000 tons on daily bais.

He said the current demand was mostly panic driven and fueled by middle man which was not historically a part of supply chain of Urea.

He said the farmers should make sure that they would get adequate urea at controlled price in January, February and March.

“Farmers are requested not to engage in panic buying and avoid purchasing of urea to be used in February and March as this would save the country from price hike and unnecessary struggle to get urea in long queue,” he added.