09 March 2005	Wednesday	27 Muharram 1426

LAHORE, March 8: Punjab on Tuesday asked the federal government to allow setting up of two more urea plants in the country due to six per cent annual increase in the consumption of the commodity.

The suggestion came in a meeting of the Review Committee of the Fertilizer Import/Export Quality Control Act, 2004. The meeting was chaired by Minister for Agriculture Punjab Arshad Khan Lodhi and attended by Minister Food Ch Iqbal, Minister Special Education Hussain Jehania Gardezi, Minister Colonies Manazar Ali Ranhja, Minister Jails Saeed Akbar Niwani and other officials of the Punjab Agriculture Department.

The meeting noted that the country was only self-sufficient in urea a few years ago but was also exporting. Now it was importing because of consistent rise in demand every year.

The government has to subsidise import because international price was Rs1,100 per bag against domestic price of Rs450 per bag. Late import causes ripples in domestic market and cause price hike. In these circumstances, the government should allow two more pants of urea to meet the domestic demand.