The Minister of State for Chemicals and Fertilizers, Nihal chand has said that at regards fertilizers, Urea is provided to the farmers at the statutory price of Rs 5310 per MT since 1.4.2010. This price was increased slightly by Rs. 50 per MT w.e.f. November 2012 to meet the expenses of retailers for acknowledging the receipt of fertilizers in the mobile based Fertilizer Monitoring System (m-FMS). So now the MRP is Rs 5360 per MT excluding the Central Excise Duty of 1% for the domestically produced urea and 1% Counter Vailing Duty (CVD) on the imported Urea and local taxes (VAT etc.) levied by various State Governments. In respect of non-urea fertilizers i.e. Phosphetic & Potassic fertilizers, the prices of these fertilizers are open and fertilizer companies are allowed to fix the prices at reasonable level. Prices of fertilizers during the last five years are enclosed at Annexure.In a written reply in the Rajya Sabha today, Shri Nihal Chand, Government neither regulate the prices of chemicals and insecticides nor maintain any data base of chemicals and insecticides.
The Minister said Government announces MSP every for Rabi and Kharif crops. The estimates of cost of cultivation/cost of production, which is an important input for forming the recommendation of Minimum Support Price (MSP), include all actual expensed in cash and kind incurred in production by the farmers which also include cost of chemicals, fertilizers and insecticides. Moreover, Commission for Agricultural Costs and Prices tracks the movement in prices of all factor inputs to arrive at the estimates of the cost of production for the year for which MSP policy is formulated.