Lok Sabha Question No. 2273 (UNSTARRED), answered on 2016-11-29
Subject: Fertilizer Imports
Ministry: CHEMICALS AND FERTILIZERS
Asked by: ARVIND GANPAT SAWANT, BHAVANA GAWALI (PATIL), VASANTHI M.

## GOVERNMEN T OF INDIA MINISTRY OF CHEMICALS & FERTILIZERS DEPARTMENT OF FERTILIZERS

## LOK SABHA

UNSTARRED QUESTION NO 2273† TO BE ANSWERED ON 29.11.2016

## Fertilizer Imports

## 2273† SHRI ARVIND SAWANT:

SHRI HRIMATI BHAVANA PUNDALIKRAO GAWALI PATIL:

SHRIMATI  VASANTHI  M.:

Will the Minister of CHEMICALS & FERTILIZERS be pleased to state:

- (a) the quantity and value of various fertilizers including urea imported during the last three years and the current year;
- (b) the details of the companies which imported these fertilizers and the names of countries from where it was imported;
- (c) whether these fertilizers  were  imported  due  to  shortage of  these fertilizers  in the country and if so, the details thereof; and
- (d) whether the standard of fertilizers imported are checked at any stage and if so, the details thereof?

## ANSWER

MINISTER OF STATES IN THE MINISTRY OF CHEMICALS AND FERTILIZERS, SHIPPING, ROAD TRANSPORT & HIGHWAYS

(SHRI MANSUKH L MANDAVIYA)

(a) & (b):  Urea is the only fertilizer under statutory price control and its import for direct agriculture use is permitted through State Trading Enterprises (STEs) namely MMTC Limited (MMTC), State Trading Corporation Limited (STC) and Indian Potash Limited (IPL),  under  the  Foreign  Trade  Policy  of  the  Government.  Government  is  also importing  approximately  20  Lakh  Metric  Tonnes  urea  from  Oman  India  Fertiliser Company (OMIFCO) under a Long Term Urea Off Take Agreement (UOTA) between GOI & OMIFCO. The import of urea from OMIFCO is made through M/s IFFCO & M/s KRIBHCO. The year-wise  quantity  and  value  of  urea  imported  during  the  last  three years and current year (up to October, 2016) are as under:-

|   Year |   From OMIFCO (LMT) |   Through STE (LMT) | Total Urea Imported (LMT)   | Value (Million US$)   |
|--------|---------------------|---------------------|-----------------------------|-----------------------|
|  21.21 |               49.68 |               70.89 | 1,968.36                    | 2013-14               |
|  14.63 |               72.86 |               87.49 | 2,477.27                    | 2014-15               |
|  20.77 |               63.96 |               84.73 | 2,087.61                    | 2015-16               |
|  11.96 |               28.11 |               40.07 | 791.58                      | 2016-17 *             |

Import  of  fertilizers  (other  than  Urea)  is  free,  commonly  known  as  Open  General Licence  (OGL).  Various  companies  import  these  fertilizers  as  per  their  commercial judgment. Government does not maintain the value of these imports. The year-wise details of quantity of P&K fertilizers imported during the last three years and current year (up to October, 2016) are as under:-

<Figures in Lakh MT>

|   Year |   DAP |   NPK | MOP #     |
|--------|-------|-------|-----------|
|  32.61 |  3.62 | 31.8  | 2013-14   |
|  38.53 |  2.91 | 41.97 | 2014-15   |
|  60.08 |  6.29 | 32.43 | 2015-16 * |
|  38.77 |  4.93 | 22.13 | 2016-17   |

* upto October, 2016

# MOP includes both for use as direct application as well as NPK manufacture.

The name of companies who have imported P&K fertilizers during the last 3 years and the  current  year  are  Chambal  Fertilizers  &  Chemicals  Ltd  (CFCL),  Coromandel International Ltd (CIL), Deepak Fertilizers & Petrochemicals Ltd (DFPL), Fertilizers and Chemicals Travancore Limited (FACT), Greenstar Fertilizer Ltd.(GFL), Gujarat State Fertilizers & Chemicals Ltd (GSFC), HINDALCO/Indo Gulf  Fertilizers Ltd (IGFL), HPM Chemicals  &  Fertilizes,  Indian  Farmers  Fertilsers  Cooperative  Ltd  (IFFCO),  Indian Potash Ltd (IPL), Kanpur Fertilizers, Krishak Bharati Cooperative  (KRIBHCO), Mangalore Chemicals & Fertilizers Ltd. (MCFL), Madras Fertilizer Ltd (MFL), Mosaic India  Pvt.  Ltd,  Nagarjuna  Fertilizers  and  Chemicals  Ltd  (NFCL),  National  Fertilizers Limited (NFL), Paradeep Phosphates Ltd (PPL), Rashtriya Chemicals & Fertilizers Ltd (RCF), Shriram Ferts & Chemicals, Sunfert International Pvt. Ltd, Tata Chemicals Ltd (TCL), Zuari Agro Chemicals Ltd (ZACL).

The countries from where these fertilizers  have  been  imported  during  the  last  three years and current year are Algeria, Australia, Bahrain, Belarus, China, Canada, CIS, Egypt,  Estonia,  Germany,  Indonesia,  Iran,  Israel,  Jordan,  Kuwait,  Latvia,  Lithuania, Morocco, Oman, Russia, S. Arabia, UAE, Ukraine and USA.

(c): Yes, Madam. The country is the net importer of fertilizers. The import of urea for direct  agriculture  use  is  made  on  Government  account  to  bridge  the  gap  between assessed demand and the indigenous production. The fertilizers other than urea are imported by the importers as per their commercial judgement based on the demandsupply  balance.  There  are  no  exploitable  reserves  of  potash  in  the  country  and  its requirement is meet through imports only.

(d): Yes,  Madam.  At  present,  there  are  4  notified  Central  Government  Fertilizer Quality  Control  Laboratories  (FQCLs),  namely,  Central  Fertilizer  Quality  Control  & Training  Institute  (CFQC&TI)  and  its  three  Regional  Fertilizer  Control  Laboratories (RFCLs),  which  have  been  entrusted  with  the  responsibility  to  check  the  quality  of imported  fertilizers.  These  laboratories  carry  out  the  analysis  as  per  the  methods notified  in  the  FCO.  In  order  to  check  the  quality  of  imported  fertilizers,  the  fertilizer inspectors of CFQC&TI and RFCLs draw samples at the ports and send the samples to the laboratories. Thereafter, the samples are analyzed by the qualified analyst of the laboratories.

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