RFCL receives New Investment Policy sops

New Delhi: The government on Wednesday extended the subsidy benefits under the amended New Investment Policy 2012 to Ramagundam Fertilisers and Chemicals Ltd (RFCL), located in Telangana.

A decision in this regard was taken in the Cabinet meeting, chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Briefing media after the Cabinet meeting, Information and Broadcasting Minister Prakash Javadekar said, "The subsidy benefit under the (amended) New Investment Policy 2012, which was brought in 2014, was applicable to those factories set up till 2019. But, RFCL has been set up in 2021, and this policy has now been extended to this also."

As per norms, the urea factories set up till 2019 were eligible for subsidies under the amended New Investment Policy 2012. Still, the benefits are extended to RFCL that was set up in 2021 because farmers will benefit at the end of the day, he said. RFCL will manufacture 12.70 lakh tonnes of urea annually. This would help reduce the country's dependence on imports and move towards the direction of self-reliance, he added.

The New Investment Policy 2012 was amended on October 7, 2014. RFCL is a joint venture company of National Fertilizers Ltd (NFL), Engineers India Ltd (EIL) and Fertilizers Corporation of India Limited (FCIL). It is reviving the erstwhile Ramagundam unit of FCIL by setting up a new gas-based neem-coated urea plant at a cost of Rs 6,165.06 crore.

In a statement, the government said the start of the Ramagundam plant will add 12.7 lakh tonnes of indigenous urea production in the country and help achieve self-reliance in the urea production. It will be one of the largest fertiliser manufacturing units of southern India. This project not only improves the availability of fertiliser to farmers but also give a boost to the economy in the region.

The government is reviving five closed units of FCIL/ HFCL by setting up new ammonia urea plants of 12.7 lakh metric tonne per annum (LMTPA) capacity each at Ramagundam (Telangana), Talcher (Odisha), Gorakhpur (Uttar Pradesh), Sindri (Jharkhand) and Barauni (Bihar). This will be done through formation of joint ventures of leading PSUs with an investment of about Rs 40,000 crore.

On operationalisation of these plants, indigenous urea production will be increased by 63.5 lakh tonnes, which will reduce the import of urea to that extent and will save huge amount of foreign exchange, the government added.