LAHORE: Punjab Minister for Agriculture Dr Farrukh Javed has asked the federal government to review the decision of increasing 53 per cent gas tariff for industrial sector, which would also affect the prices of fertilizer.
De Farrukh Javed, in a letter to the Federal Ministries of Finance and Petroleum, Provincial Minister for Agriculture, said that the proposed increase in industrial gas tariff will also increase the prices of fertilizer approximately by Rs200 per bag. It will be a big blow to the farmers who couldn’t get a justified price for their cotton and rice crops, he added.
The provincial minister said that gas in addition to being a fuel to gas industry is also a constituent of urea. Dr Farrukh Javed said that “Kharif Crop” is about to start and this news of increase in fertilizer prices has created restlessness among poor farmers. He advised not to let it happen as we are facing high input prices as compared to our neighbours and it has increasingly becoming difficult for our farmers to compete internationally with other countries.
