Staff Correspondent
The government will confiscate dealership licences and forfeit security money if any dealer is found selling fertiliser at a higher price than the government-fixed rate.
“Nobody can charge extra money for fertiliser. If anybody is found doing it, then the government will take stern punitive measure against the person concerned,” said Agriculture Secretary Sheikh Enayet Ullah at a press conference at his Secretariat office yesterday.
He also said the deputy commissioners (DCs) have already been instructed to monitor stock of fertiliser and its prices at field level and send a report accordingly to the ministry concerned.
Besides, central monitoring cell on fertiliser set up in the ministry will also monitor the distribution and prices of fertiliser across the country.
Enayet said the government would provide subsidy on import of fertiliser in private sector as well as on stock of fertiliser by the local dealers.
He said the demand of fertiliser goes high in the country during the boro season from January to March. There will be no crisis of fertiliser this year as the government has already taken all-out measures to restore fertiliser distribution properly, he added.
The government has fixed the prices of non-urea fertilisers like TSP at Tk 40 per kg, MOP at Tk 35 per kg and DAP at Tk 45 per kg at the farmers’ level which came into on January 14.
At the same time, the government has also fixed the prices of TSP at Tk 38 per kg, MOP at Tk 33 per kg and DAP at Tk 43 per kg at the dealers’ level.
The government will provide Tk 2,756 crore as subsidy for fertiliser. Of the total subsidy money, Tk 1,520 crore will be given to the state-owned BADC and BCIC. The rest amount of Tk 1,236 crore will be given to private sector importers.
During the peak boro season, the demand of TSP fertiliser increases to 1,34,000 tonnes while MOP at 1,80,000 tonnes and DAP at 60,000 tonnes.
Against the estimated demand, there is now a stock of 3,19,000 tonnes of TSP fertiliser, 2,19,000 tonnes of MOP and 48,400 tonnes of DAP in the warehouses of BADC and BCIC, said Enayet.
The agricultural secretary also said people can lodge complaints about any mismanagement in fertiliser distribution over telephone. The telephone numbers are 7164232 and 9570043 and 7163080 (Fax).
Courtesy: .thedailystar.net
