Govt pledges to work for farmers

Finance Minister Ishaq Dar says government trying to provide inputs to farmers at reduced costs; says the supply of non-utilised gas to fertiliser industry can be explored

Finance Minister Senator Ishaq Dar has said that the government will work for facilitating the fertiliser industry to provide quality fertiliser at reduced costs to the farmers. The strategy of agriculture credit and provision of inputs at reduced costs will benefit the farmers and lead to growth in this sector, said Dar.

The finance minister was speaking at a meeting with a delegation led by Fatima Fertilizers CEO Arif Habib at the Finance Ministry on Wednesday to discuss issues related to the fertilizer industry in Pakistan.

Habib briefed the finance minister on issues related to the fertiliser industry. He said that the local fertiliser industry is critical to Pakistan due to the agrarian economy and it is the most efficient industry in gas utilisation. He disclosed that the local industry is timely providing fertilisers to farmers at a rate of 30 percent to 50 percent below the import price. He said that due to gas shortages/curtailment the local production is below demand and due to this huge foreign exchange is being spent on expensive imports to bridge the gap between demand and supply.

He informed the participants of the meeting that if enough gas is provided the industry can not only fulfil the local demand but also export fertiliser in order to earn foreign exchange. He said that the SNGPL should be directed to fulfil its commitment to provide gas to the fertiliser industry. He also demanded for allocation of unutilised gas and gas from new discoveries to the fertiliser industry which is vital for agriculture growth in the country.

The finance minister said that field wise status of gas supply must be evaluated and if there is additional gas which is not being utilised then cost benefit analysis of bringing that gas into the system and supply to fertiliser industry should be explored. He said that due to the peak demand of electricity in the summer season, priority is given to the energy sector and the government is moving on to coal powered energy plants to balance the energy mix in the future.

He said that the government is working on a strategy to enhance exploration of hydrocarbons and if anyone has an out of box solution to meet the growing natural gas demands the government will give serious thought to it.

The meeting was also attended by Minister for Water and Power Khawaja Asif, Finance Secretary Dr Waqar Masood, Petroleum and Natural Resources Secretary Abid Saeed, Advisor to the Finance Ministry Rana Assad Amin, Additional Finance Secretary to Finance Minister Shahid Mahmood and senior officials of the Finance Ministry.