The government has revised the maximum retail price of urea fertilizer at the dealer level from Tk 14 per kilogram (kg) to Tk 20 per kg and at the farmer level from Tk 16 per kg to Tk 22 per kg. The revised price was effective from Monday (August 1).
The government has taken such decision to rationalise the use of urea fertilizers due to the abnormal increase in the prices of fertilizers in the international market in the ongoing global situation.
The current price of urea fertilizer per kg in the international market is Tk 81. As a result, the government has to pay a subsidy of Tk 59 per kg even after the price increase by Tk 6. In the financial year 2005-06, the subsidy on urea fertilizer was Tk 15 per kg.
The present Agriculture friendly government has reduced the price of fertilizers by four times since 2009 till now and is supplying sufficient quantity of fertilizers to farmers at very low prices.
DAP fertilizer contains 18 percent nitrogen or urea fertilizer content. That is why the government is reducing the price of DAP fertilizer from Tk 90 to Tk 16 per kg to reduce the unnecessary and excessive use of urea fertilizer by increasing the use of DAP.
As a result of this initiative, the use of DAP fertilizer has doubled in the last few years. In 2019, 8 lakh tonnes of DAP was used and currently 16 lakh tonnes are being used.
However, use of urea fertilizer did not reduce despite reducing the price of DAP fertilizer. But in reality the use of urea fertilizers has not decreased, rather it has increased. In 2019, when the use of urea was 25 lakh tons now it stands at 26.50 lakh tons.
On the other hand, the price of fertilizers has increased by about three to four times in the international market over the last one year. As a result, the subsidy given by the government in the country has also increased almost four times.
In the fiscal year 2020-21 when the subsidy was Tk 7717 crore, in the last fiscal it stood at Tk 28000 crore.
