Centre will set up a secretaries’ panel headed by Cabinet secretary KM Chandrasekhar to consider nutrient-based subsidy (NBS) regime for urea.

CoS will be formed as soon as possible, fertiliser secretary Sutanu Behuria told newsmen after a meeting of the group of ministers (GoM) in the capital on Wednesday. The secretaries’ panel will also look into the changes to be made in the investment policy to make the sector attractive for fresh flow of debt and equity funds, he said.

In addition, the Cabinet will shortly decide on revival of sick urea manufacturing units. When asked about the timeline, Behuria said, “It should go to the Cabinet this fiscal.”

Government is weighing possibilities of reviving these urea-producing units, which also includes adoption of public private partnership (PPP) model for them.

Fertiliser secretary said that it is not necessary that the government will offer Budget support to the sick units. “If they are revived through private sector route, they will raise money from the market. We are looking at all the possibilities,” Behuria added.

A GoM headed by Pranab Mukherjee met on Wednesday to address the issues related to fertiliser sector. Minister of state for fertilisers Srikant Kumar Jena, oil minister Murli Deora, agriculture minister Sharad Pawar, deputy chairman of Planning Commission Montek Singh Ahluwalia were part of the meeting.

CoS will have secretaries from the ministries such as fertilisers, finance, revenue, and expenditure among others, Behuria said. The government has already freed prices of all non-urea fertilisers since April this year. However, prices of urea, currently fixed at Rs 5,310 per tonne, are still controlled by government.

The country’s current demand for urea is close to 27 million tonnes per annum. Of this, 21 million tonnes is met from indigenous production.