Govt fixes Urea price at ' 400 a bag
Source: Hueiyen News Service
Imphal, June 10 2011:
After giving subsidy, government will make available Urea fertilizer at ' 400 a bag (50 kg) to the farmers.
While fixing the price of the fertilizer in a cabinet meeting held this evening under the chair of CM, O Ibobi Singh, an approval for sanctioning ' 2 crore to the Agriculture Department for giving subsidy to the farmers has been given, an official source said.
The actual price to be paid while procuring the item from Brahmaputra Valley Fertilizer Corporation (BVFC), Namrup remained unable to be fixed since the price was revised by the Central government.
The price of Urea was revised at ' 3848.38 per metric ton, that is, ' 192.40 per bag.
The price of the fertilizer to be sold to the farmers by the state government could not be fixed after the price revision, though Manipur used to get the same at a maximum retail price of ' 276.10 per bag after adding all taxes levied while procuring from the factory and bringing it to the state.
Source maintained that after adding all taxes and transportation charge from the factory to Imphal, the actual rate of Urea per bag was ' 520 but the cabinet today decided to make available the fertilizers to the farmers at ' 400 a bag after giving subsidy.
The cabinet further decided to procured 10,000 metric tons of Urea for onward supply to the farmers.
It is pertinent to mention that farmers of the state have been facing a shortage of Urea despite the efforts of the Agriculture Department due to the uncertainty prevailing on the two national highways, 39 and 53 .
The cabinet further approved the revival of 35 posts in the PDA which had been earlier abolished as part of the downsizing in the government departments and also to appoint retired Chief Engineer Ng Rastrapati of PWD as Chief Engineer of the PDA.