ISLAMABAD, Pakistan: The Minister for Industries and Production Makhdum Khusro Bakhtyar has directed the provincial authorities to carry vigilant border monitoring to avoid inter-provincial supplies anomalies and rationalize urea supplies district wise for the market correction.
The directives were issued when the minister was presiding over the meeting of the weekly fertiliser review committee at the Ministry in Islamabad on Monday to meet the requirement of urea for winter crops.
The meeting was attended by the top management of fertiliser industry, Provincial departments, and senior officials of the Petroleum Division.
The meeting reviewed the projection of urea production, supplies, and distribution to agri-pockets of the Country.
The fertiliser industry assured of running their manufacturing plants with full capacity to meet the monthly needs of soil nutrients during the Rabi season.
The industries and production minister commended the efforts industry to ensure adequate urea supplies and punitive measures by government departments against hoarders and profiteers resulting in a significant reduction in urea close to notified price ie Rs 1768/bag.
Khusro Bakhtyar hoped that price sustainability would relieve the market stress over urea prices which had reached to a level of Rs 2500-2800/bag in the past few weeks due to black marketing and profiteering by hoarders.
The minister also noted that the pro-agricultural policies of the incumbent government had not only scaled up domestic urea production but also resulted in lower urea prices as compared to the global prices; and this would reflect in increased crop production and farmer’s income.
The meeting concluded with guidelines for provincial departments and fertiliser manufacturers to identify the factors involved in black marketing and over-supply of urea to avoid any market stress amidst the Rabi season.
