Helping farmers and also being viable is a tough call, co-op titan IFFCO is learning the hard way. And sometimes this tightrope walking does not appeal to vested interests. The recent controversy over DAP price hike is a case in point.
IFFCO’s MD, the PR team as well as its Marketing Dept have been clarifying that IFFCO will sell the huge stock of Complex Fertiliser at its disposal at the old rates but the vested interests are not eager to register the truth.
Opposition parties which look for a chance to gherao the Modi govt, have accused the govt for being anti-farmer on the “so-called” DAP price-hike. As one scribe put it “IFFCO has got caught in the crossfire between Opposition and the govt”.
IFFCO announced that 11.26 lac tonnes of complex fertilizers with it, is to be sold at the old rate of Rs 1200 per bag and not at the new rate of Rs 1900. The new rate of Rs 1900 ( which is not to be implemented as of now) has been arrived at by incorporating the rising cost of raw-materials in the international market.
The issue, for a moment, created confusion even in the minds of govt agencies and it was only on Thursday that the Union Minister Sadanand Gowda tweeted his thanks after realizing that IFFCO is still selling fertilizers at the old rate.
The episode has its genesis in the fact that the prices of raw materials of fertilizers including that of DAP have gone up in the international market. This has led to most of the private domestic fertilizer companies raising prices since March but the IFFCO MD, sources add, insisted on his marketing dept to continue with old rates.
The marketing department, meanwhile, decided to incorporate the raised international prices from the new financial year that is April 1, 2021 on the bags of DAP which showed an MRP of Rs 1900. It was followed with a letter to SMMs. The letter explained that though the printed MPR is higher, the rate would continue to be an old one only of Rs 1200 per bag..
Since it is mandatory to have a Price line on each bag, the Rs 1900 was arrived at after calculating the international rates, said an IFFCO official. But it was MRP which means fertilizer bags could not be sold beyond this price, though it can be sold at any rate below this, explained the official stressing that GM’s letter to SMM clarified all this. But those looking for a chance to spread fake news on social media seized the opportunity and tried to make a political capital out of it, he underlined.
Several tweets by the MD Dr U S Awasthi explained it. In one of the tweets, he wrote “We at IFFCO ensure that there is enough material in the market with old rates and I have instructed the IFFCO marketing team to sell only previously packed material with old rates to farmers. We always take decisions by keeping farmer first approach”.
In another tweet Dr U S Awasthi says “The complex fertiliser prices mentioned by IFFCO are tentative. International prices of raw materials are yet to be finalized by companies. Indeed, there is a sharp increase seen in the international raw material prices.
Tweeting Awasthi urged vested interests not to indulge in rumour-mongering “We at IFFCO, take strong objection to tweets, news, linking any political party or Govt for an increase in price of complex fertilisers. They are decontrolled. No linkage to any political party or government.”