Phosphatic and Potassic Fertilisers: government allocates Rs 800 million as subsidy to manufacturers

The government has allocated Rs 800 million as subsidy to manufacturers of Phosphatic and Potassic Fertilisers, as well as Rs 200 million to importers of the same in the Budget 2010-11 but no amount has been released so far. On question of the members, the information was provided to the National Assembly Secretariat.
The government provides feed gas to the fertiliser sector at lower rate Rs 102/MMBTU, as compared to industrial rate of Rs 382/ MMBTU. The annual consumption of feed gas by Fertiliser Industry is 111,227,950 MMBTU. In this way total annual implicit subsidy in the form of cheaper feed gas comes to Rs 31.14 billion. Meanwhile, in another reply, the growth rate of large scale manufacturing industries of the country has declined from 4.84 percent in 2009-10 to - 1.77 percent in 2010-11 (July-December).
The main reasons of decline are gas curtailment, devastating floods, International Economic downturn, electricity loadshedding and increased rates; high banks mark-up and law and order situation. Similarly, a total of Rs 3.2 billion has been allocated in PSDP (2010-11) for 45 projects to rejuvenate the industrial sector.
The projects are specially focused on skill development, technology upgradation, cutting out on energy losses and development of emerging sectors to achieve the goals of diversification. Answering to another question, a total of 1909 industries are sick across the country. According to detail, as many as 480 industrial units in Punjab, 779 in Sindh, 568 in KP and 82 in Balochistan have been sick.