ISLAMABAD: Minister for Inter-Provincial Coordination Riaz Hussain Pirzad, on behalf of Ministry of National Food Security, Thursday informed the National Assembly that the current government had announced a subsidy amounting to Rs 63 billion to promote the agriculture sector, considered backbone of national economy.
During the question-answer session, he said a subsidy of Rs 14 billion on fertilizers was announced in 2014-15, but due to non existence of the mechanism the subsidy did not materialize.
In 2015-16, he said, a subsidy of Rs 20 billion on phosphatic fertilizers was announced in the “Kissan Package” besides providing a cash subsidy of Rs 5000 per acre for cotton and rice growers having 12.5 acres land.
In 2016-17, a subsidy of 27.96 billion was allocated for DAP and Urea fertilizers. The subsidy included an amount of Rs 17.16 billion for Urea and Rs 10.80 billion for DAP and other Phosphatic fertilizers. However; the amount was increased to Rs 39 billion approximately.
During the current year, the Federal Government has decided to provide the cash subsidy of Rs 100/ per 50 kg bag and the price of Urea shall be maintained up to Rs.1, 400/ per bag in the FY 2017-18. Morever, sales tax has been reduced from 17 percent to 5 percent for all fertilizers.
