‘DBT will help industry in tiding over problem of liquidity crunch, leakages’
NEW DELHI: National Fertilisers Limited (NFL), the leading government company in the fertiliser sector, has made a successful foray into the marketing of fertilisers such as DAP, MoP and Bentonite Sulphur along with urea, the organisation’s core product. Manoj Mishra, chairman and managing director of NFL spoke to HT on the way ahead for the company. Excerpts:
How was the performance of the company in 2015-16? NFL produced 3.8 million metric tonne (MT) of urea with an overall capacity utilisation of 118% in 2015-16, the highest in the company’s history. This accounts for 15.5% share of the total urea production of India, which is also the highest. Though the sale of urea during 201516 was marginally lower compared to previous year due to a deficit in rainfall, even then NFL achieved the highest-ever urea sale of 1.92 million MT in the rabi season (November-April).
What are your plans for 2016-17? In 2016-17, NFL is targeting production of 3.8 million MT of urea under an MoU signed with the government. In line with the long-term vision of the company to provide all fertilisers to the farmers under a single window, the company has planned to import and sell about 200,000 MT of non-urea fertilisers. The company is also looking forward to improve its trading business and intend to add some new products such as water soluble fertilisers, zinc sulphate etc. Further in order to meet the growing requirement of bentonite sulphur in the regions with sulphur-deficient soil, the company is in the process of setting up a unit in Panipat to manufacture 8,000 MT of bentonite sulphur per year.
You are also the chairman of Ramagundam Fertilisers & Chemicals Limited. How far has the Ramagundam revival project progressed? NFL had formed RFCL in a joint venture with Engineers India Limited and Fertiliser Corporation of India for setting up of new gas-based urea plant at Ramagundum in Telangana with a capacity of 1.27 million tonnes per annum. This plant is going to be the first urea plant to be revived by the Centre. The plant is envisaged to be commissioned by September 2018 with an anticipated capital expenditure of `5,254 crore.
Are you in favour of direct transfer of subsidy to farmers? Under the scheme, the fertiliser subsidy will be directly transferred to the bank accounts of farmers, instead of routing through manufacturing/importing companies. This will lead to better targeting of subsidy and thereby reducing overall subsidy outgo of the government. DBT will also help the industry in tiding over the problem of liquidity crunch in addition to checking leakages. Pilot projects for DBT shall be started soon in some of the districts in country, few of which will also be allocated to NFL.