Sources in the agriculture ministry said that basing on these estimates and taking into consideration the C&F costs of imported fertilisers in rupee value prevailing in the kharif season, the subsidy on imported DAP for kharif will be around Rs 3,500 per tonne and that of imported MoP about Rs 3,200 per tonne. The concessions on super single phosphate (SSP) will, however, remain same at Rs 900 per tonne.

The rates of subsidy to the fertiliser units for sale of decontrolled fertilisers will be announced in the first week of October, after the agriculture minister, Sompal returns from his visits to Bulgaria and Cuba by September 30. Along with the subsidy for the kharif season on decontrolled fertilisers, the government will also announce the revised subsidy for therabi season.

As the government has decided to roll back to retail ceiling price regime for decontrolled fertilisers after its initial announcement of decontrol of retail prices on August 20, there will also be a need to revise the concessions announced earlier for the rabi season on these decontrolled fertilisers. The government decided to roll back to the retail ceiling price regime as the agriculture production was seriously affected by floods and droughts in the kharif season and freeing of retail prices in this time would send wrong signals in the rabi season.

Earlier when the ministry removed the ceiling price limits for decontrolled fertilisers, it had estimated the subsidy on imported DAP and MoP for the rabi season at Rs 2500 per tonne. Subsidy on various grades of complexes was estimated in the range of Rs 2250 to Rs 3646 per tonne.

The government has decided that pending finalisation, the concession rates per tonne would be Rs 4000 in case of indigenously produced DAP, Rs 2500 for importedDAP and Rs 2500 for MoP. The rate of concession for complexes would be based on Rs 4000 per tonne for DAP and Rs 2500 per tonne for MoP with weightage for both N and P components of DAP. The rate of concession would range between Rs 2250 to Rs 3646 per tonne for different grades of complexes.

Also pending finalisation, the maximum retail price of both indigenous and imported DAP would be Rs 8300 per tonne, that of MoP at Rs 3700 per tonne and that of complexes of various grades will range between Rs 6200 to Rs 8000 per tonne. In case of SSP, the concerned state governments will fix the maximum retail prices.

The BICP was entrusted by the Union agriculture ministry to work out the handling costs of imported decontrolled fertilisers and production costs of DAP in the kharif season so that the government could compute the concession to be given to the fertiliser companies for sale to the farmers.

The BICP as per its mandate has also worked out the production costs of indigenous DAP. But it has worked outthe costs unitwise as feedstock and raw material requirements varies from unit to unit. The agriculture ministry, in this context, has decided to work out the average of these estimates and fix the concession for indigenous DAP.

Since the BICP has given estimates for the kharif season as per the mandate, the agriculture ministry would fix the subsidy and maximum retail prices after making necessary computation for the rabi season.