Meet on fertiliser revival

Calcutta, Oct. 8: The Union fertiliser and chemicals ministry has approached the finance ministry with three options to revive the single super phosphate (SSP) fertiliser industry. This was revealed by Vijay Chibber, joint secretary in the fertiliser ministry.

At the same time, the Fertiliser Association of India has convened a meeting of its SSP committee on Wednesday to sort out subsidy issues.

Representatives of fertiliser and agriculture ministries are likely to attend the meeting. Many SSP fertiliser units are closed in the absence of a clear subsidy policy.

Production of single super phosphate fertilisers is around two million tonnes against an installed capacity of over seven million tonnes.

With global prices of rock phosphate and sulphur, the principal ingredients of SSP fertilisers, hitting an all- time high, the units are finding it difficult to run their operations.

The options to be discussed at the meeting include freight rate rationalisation for rock phosphates and single super phosphates along with adjustment of phosphate content in single super phosphates.