ISLAMABAD, June 23: Federal Minister for Industries and Production Liaqat Ali Jatoi on Wednesday assured the fertiliser manufacturers that the five-year period for concessional gas supply for balancing, modernization, rehabilitation and expansion (BMRE) of existing fertiliser plants would be increased to encourage investment in the sector.

He gave the assurance while presiding over a meeting with the fertiliser manufacturers from both public and private sectors and new investors, according to an official statement.

The minister said the government would encourage new investment in the fertiliser sector and would provide maximum incentives so that increased production should ensure abundant availability of fertiliser to the farming community for an enhanced agricultural production.

He referred to the reports about possible shortage of urea in near future and need for imports at the cost of huge foreign exchange amounts, and said there was need for further investment in the sector and BMRE of the existing plants to enhance production and to meet the feared shortfall.

The meeting was informed that the existing urea capacity of 4.43 million tonnes could be enhanced to 5.05 million tonnes and other fertilisers from 1.2 million tonnes to 1.369 million tonnes through BMRE of the existing plants.

It was also informed that a new investor, Fatima Fertiliser, had planned to set up a plant of 1.2 million tonnes capacity for urea and other fertilisers. National Fertiliser Corporation Chairman Maj-General Zafar Abbas apprised the meeting of the corporation's plans to set up a new urea plant with a capacity of 860,000 tonnes and about the BMRE plan of Pak-Arab Fertiliser to increase its production by 168,600 tonnes per year.

The minister assured the meeting that the issues of fertiliser manufacturers would be considered and would be resolved by reviewing the fertiliser policy made in 2001.