Slash fertiliser price: Jayalalithaa to PM

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Hitting out at the Centre for the increase in fertiliser prices following the introduction of nutrient-based subsidy (NBS) policy, chief minister J. Jayalalithaa urged Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to immediately withdraw it and restore the previous system of fixed MRP to protect the farming community and ensure food security for the nation.

In a letter to the Prime Minister on Wednesday, Ms Jayalalithaa also urged him to immediately direct the department of fertilisers to allocate the full requirement of fertilisers for Tamil Nadu to ensure that farmers in the state did not face shortage as kuruvai cultivation was under way.

Expressing “deep pain and anguish,” Ms Jayalalithaa said the introduction of NBS scheme from April 1, 2010, coupled with an unreliable supply of fertilisers to the state, was “indeed threatening to deprive our farmers of their basic means of sustenance and livelihood”.

The annual consumption of chemical fertilisers in Tamil Nadu was about 28 lakh metric tonnes. The NBS policy gave liberty to manufacturers/importers of chemical fertilisers to fix the MRP based on their cost of production/import.

Since then, the fertiliser companies have been hiking the retail price of fertilisers at will, causing extreme hardship to farmers, she said.

Consequently, the prices of various fertilisers went up two to three times and increased steeply since April this year.

Between April 17 and June 18 this year, the MRP of a 50 kg bag of DAP and MOP marketed by Indian Potash Limited increased from Rs 910 to Rs 1,200, and `680 to Rs 840.

To add insult to injury, the department of fertilisers (under DMK leader M.K. Alagiri), reduced the subsidy for 2012-2013 for DAP to Rs 14,350 per MT from Rs 19,763 per MT fixed last year, and for MOP, to Rs 14,400 per MT, against Rs 16,054 per MT fixed last year.

A further hike of about 10 per cent in urea prices and cut in subsidies has been proposed under the pretext of subsidising bio-fertilisers, she said.

She had to mitigate the “blow” by waiving 4 per cent VAT on fertilisers sale. But for this relief, farming would become absolutely unremunerative, resulting in large tracts of land being left uncultivated.

Due to effective measures and timely steps taken by her government, Tamil Nadu had performed well and is expected to record an all-time high of foodgrains production of 103.85 lakh MT during 2011-2012