No need to import

The Economic Coordination Committee (ECC) recently approved the import of 50,000 tonnes of urea. The current economic status of Pakistan indicates that the country is in a dire need of reliance on domestic finished goods and not on imports. With in-house manufacturing of urea – the country has the capacity of producing six million tonnes of urea, the country will be able to easily meet the overall urea demand of approximately5.8 million tonnes. In this way, Pakistan will not have to import fertiliser. At present, the country is importing urea because the government is not suppling gas to urea manufacturing units.

The government should take steps to reduce its dependence on imports and move towards self-reliance. The domestic manufacturing of urea will help reduce the input cost of fertiliser as imported urea is more expensive. The price of urea in international markets is almost double than the local price. The best option that the government has is to ensure that there is an uninterrupted supply of gas to the fertiliser sector to encourage the domestic production of urea.

Rizwan Pasha

Karachi