India`s urea production estimated to rise by 6% to 240 LT

New Delhi: India's urea production is estimated to increase by more than 6 percent to 240 lakh tonnes in this fiscal on the back of new policy initiatives, a top Fertiliser Ministry official has said.

The country's urea production is stagnant at around 220 lakh tonnes from last few years, whereas the demand is about 300 lakh tonnes. The difference is met through imports.

"... Following the government's agenda of promoting Make in India, the Department of Fertilisers has taken various initiatives which will definitely result in raising the domestic urea output," Fertiliser Secretary Anuj Bishnoi told PTI.

The Secretary added that in last fiscal, urea production was at 226 lakh tonnes, which is estimated to reach 240 lakh tonnes this year.

"The policy initiatives like gas pooling and incentivising the energy efficiency measures under the new urea policy will yield good results in terms of output," Bishnoi added.

The government want to reduce its dependence on imports, he further said.

Earlier this year, the Cabinet had approved the pooling of gas for all urea manufacturing plants under which gas will be provided to all plants at one uniform price.

The government had also approved the new urea policy which emphasizes on the energy efficiency for producing urea.

Urea is a controlled commodity and its price is fixed at Rs 5,360 per tonne, the difference between cost of production and selling price is paid as subsidy to manufacturers.