Punjab demands federal govt to restore old tariff of industrial gas

Lahore: Provincial Minister for Agriculture Dr. Farrukh Javed has urged the federal government to reconsider the decision of increasing tariff of industrial gas as it will have drastic effect on the prices of fertilizer. In his letter to the Federal Ministries of Finance and Petroleum, Provincial Minister for Agriculture has explained that the proposed increase in industrial gas tariff will enhance the prices of fertilizer approximately by Rs.200 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.

In a letter to the Federal Minister of Finance and Petroleum, the Provincial Minister for Agriculture Dr. Farrukh Javed 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 neighbors and it has increasingly becoming difficult for our farmers to compete internationally with other countries.

The Minister has suggested to review the decision of  rise in gas tariff to keep the urea price stable as cotton and rice sowing is about to start. Due to increase in urea prices, farmers will suffer severe economic pressure and the agricultural sector cannot afford it, he added. He said that our government should protect farmers from falling into this new burden.