Speaking to The Financial Express, SK Saxena, director (marketing), Fertiliser Association of India, said the importance of SSP in the domestic industry had been completely overlooked by the government while taking the decision on revising subsidy rates.

"The domestic production capacity of SSP is 60 lakh tonne per annum. It is unfortunate that the sector has been ignored."

The SSP consumption in India is around 18-20 per cent of the total P2O5 consumption. Saxena said that the present subsidy rate of Rs 900 was not adequate for SSP producers. "The industry was looking forward to an increase of Rs 200 for the category."

The fertiliser industry has, however, welcomed the government's decision toincrease the subsidy on DAP and MOP. Saxena believes that the import orders which had been cancelled after subsidy rates were announced in April was likely to be placed again. "Now that the subsidy has been increased there is a good possibility of fresh import orders being placed."

Orders worth 11 lakh tonne of DAP and 6 lakh tonne of MOP had been cancelled in the past month. But with revised subsidy rates the industry would not face a shortage in the present season, said Saxena.

It has been said that the inter-minesterial group for studying subsidy rates will index the rates of concession on a quarterly basis to the actual behaviour of the exchange rate of rupee against the dollar. However, the figures adopted for foreign exchange indexing has earned the ire of domestic fertiliser manufacturers.