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Chemical industry has been delicensed except three hazardous chemicals. There is no control of the Government on production and pricing of chemicals. Therefore, cost of production of chemicals is not monitored by the Government.
As far as the production cost of fertilizers in the country is concerned, it is dependent on the type of feedstock used and its cost. Costlier the feedstock, more is the cost of production of indigenous fertilizers . At present, the cost of production of indigenous urea is less than the cost of imported urea. The present weighted average cost of production of indigenous urea is Rs.8494 per metric tonne. The cost (C & F) of imported urea is Rs.11073 per metric tonne. There is no separate monitoring of cost of production of fertilizers in other countries.
The country is totally dependent on imports for manufacturing its indigenous di-ammonium phosphate (DAP). Almost entire quantity of ammonia and phosphoric acid is imported by DAP manufacturers. Similarly, the units, which use rock phosphate and manufacture their own phosphoric acid, are also dependent upon imported rock phosphate and imported sulphur for their entire requirement. Thus, the cost of indigenous DAP is primarily dependent upon the prices of raw material/intermediates prevailing in the international market.
The new Pricing Scheme (NPS) for urea units, introduced w.e.f. 1.4,2003, lays emphasis on efficiency. Pre-set energy norms for urea units have been made effective from Stage-II i.e. w.e.f. 1.4.2004.
This information was given today by the Minister of Chemicals & Fertilizers and Steel, Shri Ram Vilas Paswan in a written reply to a question in the Lok Sabha
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