India, the world’s biggest urea importer, expects its fertiliser subsidy bill for the current financial year (FY27) to swell by about 20 per cent due to a surge in global prices amid the West Asia crisis, a senior official said on Monday.
Addressing an inter-ministerial briefing on the impact of recent developments in West Asia, Aparna S Sharma, additional secretary in the Department of Fertilisers, however, added that the retail prices of urea and di-ammonium phosphate (DAP) would remain unchanged, and that there was adequate supply of fertilisers for the kharif season.
“Despite the actual (non-subsidised) price of a 45 kg urea bag being at ₹4,000, the Centre will continue to provide the same at a highly affordable rate of ₹266.5 per bag,” Sharma said. A jump in subsidies is projected as the country plans to import 6.4 million tonnes (mt) of urea and 1.9 mt of other fertilisers at high prices this kharif season.
The Centre pegged the FY27 fertiliser subsidy at ₹1.71 trillion in the Union Budget presented in February (before the start of a conflict between the US-Israel and Iran). This was about 8.40 per cent lower than the FY26 revised subsidy estimate of ₹1.86 trillion. The FY26 RE itself was about 11 per cent more than the Budget estimates. India recently placed an order to purchase 2.5 mt of urea at nearly double the price paid two months ago, as the Iran conflict disrupts global supplies and drives up prices.
