Bangladesh increases fertilizer prices by more than 200 pc

 Urea Fertilizer Bangladesh increases fertilizer prices by more than 200 pc DHAKA (Xinhua): The Bangladeshi caretaker government Tuesdayincreased the selling prices of urea and Muriate of Potash (MOP) bymore than 200 percent to ease pressure on the government' s subsidysystem, local newspaper reported Wednesday. The selling price of per ton of urea fertilizer has been increasedto 10,000 taka (about 143 U.S. dollars) from 4,800 taka (about 68.6U.S. dollars), leading English newspaper The Financial Expresssaid. The new price for MOP is 50,000 taka (about 714 U.S. dollars) perton as against the previous price of 19,500 taka (about 278.6 U.S.dollars) per ton. The upward price adjustment of fertilizers came for the first timesince 1996 and just a day after the announcement of national budgetfor the fiscal 2008-09 beginning on July 1. An official of the ministry of industry was quoted as saying theupward price adjustment of fertilizers will lessen the pressure onthe government on account of subsidy. In the outgoing fiscal, the estimated subsidy on fertilizer will bemore than 40 billion taka (about 571 million U.S. dollars) from theoriginally projected 22 billion taka due to the growing mismatchbetween selling and procurement prices. The country's urea and MoP consumption has increased substantiallysince 2004 following wider cultivation of high yielding varietiesand hybrid rice. The government has planned to import around 1.1 million tons ofurea to meet the projected demand of 2.85 million tons in the newfiscal. International