The Centre has constituted a Group of Ministers (GoM), which will look into the modified new pricing scheme (NPS) III for urea as well as consider earlier proposals for de-regulating the sector.
The GoM is likely to be headed by Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar. Apart from Mr. Pawar, the GoM is likely to include Finance Minister P. Chidambaram, Chemical and Fertilizer Minister M. K. Alagiri and Petroleum and Natural Gas Minister Veerappa Moily.
Urea is the only fertilizer that remains under full price control. Its current retail price is Rs.5,360 a tonne. The proposal to hike urea prices was made to redress imbalanced use of soil nutrients and reduce government's subsidy burden.
