India, March 13 -- The Government of India has issued a release:
Union Finance Minister Smt. Nirmala Sitharaman informed the Lok Sabha that the country currently has a robust fertilizer stock of 163 lakh metric tonnes (LMT) in the month of April. This represents a 26 percent increase over last year's stock of 128.54 LMT, which she attributed to the Government's visionary planning. The Minister said that adequate stocks are available for the Kharif season and the Government is already making provisions through supplementary demands to ensure effective preparation of the Department of Fertilizers for the upcoming Rabi season.
Addressing the House during the discussion on the second batch of supplementary demands for grants for Budget 2025-26, the Finance Minister underlined that the Government is spending approximately Rs.19,000 crore more than the original budget estimate for fertilizer subsidy in the second supplementary demands. He emphasized that the Government's focus is on meeting essential imports as well as promoting domestic manufacturing. Domestic urea production has seen a steady increase, from 225 lakh metric tonnes in 2014-15 to 306.67 lakh metric tonnes in 2024-25.
To further promote self-reliance, the government has already commissioned six new production units under the new investment policy launched by Prime Minister Narendra Modi . Each of these units has an average annual capacity of 1.27 million metric tons and has collectively increased the country's urea production capacity by 7.62 million metric tons. Additionally, two new plants are underway in Odisha and Assam under the new Urea Policy of 2015, which, once operational, are expected to further increase urea production by 2.54 million metric tons per year. In addition to new plants, the government is also expanding the capacity of existing plants to meet agricultural demand.
Disclaimer: The original story of this translated version is available on Press Information Bureau.
Disclaimer: Curated by HT Syndication.
