MINISTER OF THE STATE IN THE MINISTRY OF CHEMICALS AND FERTILIZERS AND
MINISTER OF STEEL
(SHRI RAM VILAS PASWAN)
(a) There are two Public Sector Undertakings in chemical sector excluding
Pharmaceuticals and a large number of chemical units in the private sector. There
are 45 major fertilizers plants in Public, Cooperative and Private Sector
manufacturing fertilizers in the country.
(b) and (c) No such report has come to the notice of the government about non
receipt of quality fertilizers to farmers. However, for ensuring the adequate
availability of right quality of fertilizers to the farmers at reasonable prices
throughout the country, the Government of India has declared fertilizer as an
essential commodity and enacted the Fertilizer (Control) Order (FCO), 1957 under
Section 3 of the Essential Commodities Act (ECA). The Fertilizer (Control) Order
(FCO) was subsequently revised in 1985. The FCO regulates the trade, price, quality
and distribution of fertilizers in the country. The standards of various fertilizers
have been laid`down in Schedule-I Part A of FCO and it is mandatory under Clause
19 to sell/ manufacture only such fertilizers which conform to the standards laid
down in the schedule of the FCO. No person is allowed to sell/manufacture fertilizers,
which do not conform to the standards as laid down in the Schedule. Any such
violation would lead to punitive and administrative action against the offenders.
The State Governments are primarily responsible for implementing the FCO provisions
and are adequately empowered under the Order/ECA to take action. There are 67
fertilizer quality control laboratories in the country including 4 of the Central
Government at Faridabad, Chennai, Mumbai and Kalyani for testing the samples drawn
by the Fertilizers` Inspectors from the fields/manufacturers. The analyzing capacity
of these laboratories is about 1.25 lakh samples per annum and only about 5.5%
samples have been found to be non-standard during 2003-04.
(d) The Department has asked the Urea manufacturing units to produce beyond their
installed capacities by increasing their stream days, postponing turn around etc.
About 3.5 lakh MT of additional Urea is estimated to be produced in the season. In
addition as Government is also importing about 16.52 lakh MT every year from OMIFO,
a joint company setup in Sur, Oman by Oman Oil Company and IFFCO and KRIBHCO.
Further, the Government has also tied up with canalizing agents i.e. IPL and MMTC
to import the required additional Diammonium Phosphate (DAP) to augment supplies. It
is expected that these measures would be sufficient to meet the requirement of
fertilizers for the current Kharif season.
