Federal Minister for Planning, Development and Special Initiative Asad Umar along with Minster for National Food Security & Research Makhdoom Khusro Bakhtiar, Adviser for Commerce, Textile, Industry & Production and Investment Abdul Razak Dawood and SAPM on Petroleum Nadeem Babar held a meeting with representatives of the fertilizer industry to discuss matters related to the fertilizer supplies and pricing.

Dated : 24 December 2019

The meeting considered various ways and means to ensure sufficient supplies of the commodities while making the prices of the fertilizer affordable for the farmers.

Federal Minister for Planning, Development and Special Initiative Asad Umar said that while the government is providing huge subsidies to keep the fertilizers affordable for the farmers, it seems that the mechanism of the subsidy needs more thinking. It seems that direct subsidy to the farmers would be more cost-effective for the government and more beneficial to the farmers. The minister said that the government would also consider removing the GIDC for the future to bring down the fertiliser prices.

Federal Minister Asad Umar said that the government believes in deregulation of various sectors of the economy. In this regard, he also solicited proposals from the representatives of the fertilizer industry for deregulation of the fertilizer sector.

The representatives of the fertilizer industry briefed the ministers on the capacity and potential of their units and the issues faced by them. They assured that they would deliberate and present their proposals to the government within two weeks.