The government has no plans to raise urea prices, according to Fertilizer Minister Ananth Kumar.

Speaking to reporters here, he said: “There are no plans to raise urea prices and we will work to increase domestic production to substitute imports.” He also said that fertiliser subsidies will be retained in the interest of farmers.

The fertiliser has a fixed maximum retail price of ₹5,360 per tonne, the difference between the cost of production and the retail price provided as subsidy to manufacturers.

Kumar was introducing Hansraj Gangaram Ahir, the new Minister of State (Mos) for Chemicals and Fertilizers, who assumed office on Tuesday. He added that there will be weekly meetings between the MoS and him to work on the policy front.

The price of urea has only been increased once by ₹50 per tonne with no new additional capacity. Earlier this year, two amendments were made to the Urea Investment Policy to limit participation in the sector for capacity expansion to only those players who were serious. A ₹300-crore bank guarantee is required to be furnished for each new project while the clause of a guaranteed buy-back was nullified.

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