Lok Sabha Question No. 229 (UNSTARRED), answered on 2018-12-11
Subject: Import of Urea
Ministry: CHEMICALS AND FERTILIZERS
Asked by: GOPALAKRISHNAN CHINNARAJ

## GOVERNMENT OF INDIA MINISTRY OF CHEMICALS & FERTILIZERS DEPARTMENT OF FERTILIZERS

## LOK SABHA

## UNSTARRED QUESTION NO. 229 TO BE ANSWERED ON: 11.12.2018 IMPORT OF UREA

## 229 DR. C. GOPALAKRISHNAN :

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

- (a) whether the import of Urea on Government Account is channelized through State Trading Enterprises;
- (b) if so, the number of names of State Trading Enterprises and import of Urea through such Enterprises during the last three years, State-wise;
- (c) whether the Government has taken initiatives to reduce the import of Urea; and
- (d) if so, the details thereof?

## ANSWER

MINISTER  OF  STATE  (INDEPENDENT  CHARGE)  OF  THE  MINISTRY  OF PLANNING  AND MINISTER OF STATE IN THE MINISTRY OF CHEMICALS AND FERTILIZERS

## (RAO INDERJIT SINGH)

(a) & (b) :  Yes Madam, Urea for direct agriculture use is imported on Government account through State Trading Enterprises (STEs) namely MMTC Limited (MMTC) and State Trading Corporation Limited (STC) under the Foreign Trade Policy of the Government.    Rashtriya  Chemicals  &  Fertilizers  (RCF)  and  National  Fertilizers Limited (NFL) also imported urea for a limited time period and  IPL has been delisted from the list of STEs by DGFT.

STEs  import  urea  on  Government  account  at  various  Indian  ports  from where,  it  is  distributed  to  the  consuming  States.  STEs  do  not  import  State-wise. Import of urea during the last three years by the STEs is as below:

## <Figures in Lakh MT>

| Year    | STC    |   MMTC |   IPL | NFL   | RCF   |
|---------|--------|--------|-------|-------|-------|
| 2015-16 | 19. 94 |  16.76 | 27.26 | N/A   | N/A   |
| 2016-17 | 14.06  |  16.35 |  4.37 | N/A   | N/A   |
| 2017-18 | 0.00   |  13.13 | 17.31 | 4.01  | 4.37  |

(c) & (d):  With the objectives of maximizing indigenous urea production; promoting energy  efficiency  in  urea  production;  and  rationalizing  subsidy  burden  on  the Government, vide notification dated 25 th  May, 2015, Department of Fertilizers has notified New Urea Policy - 2015 (NUP-2015) effective from 1 st  June, 2015. NUP2015  has  resulted  in  additional  production  of  20  LMT  during  the  year  2015-16, without adding any capacity. The production of urea during the year 2015-16 was 244.75 LMT, i.e., the highest ever urea production in the country. The production of urea  during  the  year  2016-17  and  2017-18  was  242.01  LMT  and  240.23  LMT respectively. This is significantly higher than the production of urea during 2012-13 (225.75 LMT) and 2013-14 (227.15 LMT).

Further,  the  Government  had  announced  New  Investment  Policy  -  2012  on  2 nd January, 2013 and its amendment on 7 th  October 2014 to facilitate fresh investment in urea sector and to make India self-sufficient in the urea sector.

Under  the  provisions  of  NIP  -  2012  and  its  amendment,  Matix  Fertilisers  & Chemicals Limited (Matix) has set up a Coal Bed Methane (CBM) based Greenfield Ammonia-Urea complex at Panagarh, West Bengal with the installed capacity  of 1.3 MMT per annum. Chambal Fertilizers & Chemicals Limited (CFCL) has to set up a brownfield project with capacity of 1.34 MMT at Gadepan, Rajasthan.

Besides  this,  GoI  is  reviving  5  closed  fertilizer  plants  of  Fertilizer  Corporation  of India Ltd. (FCIL) and Hindustan Fertilizer Corporation Ltd. (HFCL) namely Talcher, Ramagundam, Gorakhpur and Sindri plants of FCIL and Barauni plant of HFCL by setting up new Ammonia Urea plants of 12.7 LMT per annum capacity each using state of the art technology.

**********