FM assures of ample fertiliser stocks in rabi season, says urea buffer raised by 20 lakh tonnes

Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman

The Union government on December 15 assured that there would be no fertiliser shortage during the ongoing rabi season, with Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman saying urea stocks were sharply increased within a month through calibrated imports and close monitoring of supplies across states.

Replying in the Lok Sabha during the discussion on the Supplementary Demands for Grants, the finance minister said the Centre had built a “bumper buffer” of urea to meet higher demand following a good monsoon and rising fertiliser use by farmers. “Today we have a bumper buffer available of urea for the rabi season,” she told the House.

Urea stocks ramped up in a month

Sitharaman said urea availability had been significantly augmented between October 1 and October 31, 2025. “By carefully managing the urea stock, it has increased from 48.64 lakh metric tonnes as of October 1, 2025, to 68.85 lakh metric tonnes by October 31, 2025,” she said.

She added that 20.21 lakh metric tonnes of urea had been added within a month through steady imports, ensuring there was no disruption in supply. “Within a month, 20.21 lakh metric tonnes urea have been added by carefully importing steadily so that there is no shortage neither during the kharif season nor for the current rabi season,” the finance minister said.

According to her, the rise in fertiliser consumption was a direct outcome of favourable rainfall. “After a good monsoon, there is a demand for additional urea utilisation. It’s the business of the government to provide it,” Sitharaman said, underlining the Centre’s responsibility to ensure timely availability of farm inputs.

Supplies monitored across states

Sitharaman said the Centre had supplied fertilisers to every state and was closely tracking availability and movement. “The Centre has supplied fertilisers to every state, and the supplies are monitored through the Integrated Fertiliser Monitoring System, so that there is no shortage,” she said.

The digital monitoring system enables the government to track fertiliser production, dispatch, movement and point-of-sale transactions in real time, helping authorities respond quickly to localised shortfalls.

The government has sought Parliament’s approval for a net additional expenditure of Rs 41,455 crore through the first batch of Supplementary Demands for Grants for FY26, of which Rs 18,525 crore is towards fertiliser and related subsidies.

Current account deficit

Beyond fertiliser supplies, Sitharaman used her reply to counter claims of macroeconomic stress, saying comparisons with the 2013 balance-of-payments situation were misplaced. “The claim that the current account deficit is at its maximum is factually incorrect,” she said, adding that “at the end of June 2025 India’s current account deficit was 0.2 percent of GDP”.

She said projecting past vulnerabilities onto the current situation distorted economic reality. “Projecting the anxieties of 2013 onto the stability of 2025 is a political fabrication,” Sitharaman said, asserting that India had “transitioned from external vulnerability to external resilience”.

Summing up the broader shift, she said, “The economy today has actually moved from fragility to fortitude.”

Household consumption

The finance minister said growth over the past decade had become more broad-based, with households at the lower end of the income distribution acquiring assets at a faster pace than wealthier sections.

“In the last one decade growth has actually become quite broad based, and people from the bottom rung are the ones who are acquiring one of the asset,” Sitharaman said. She added that the consumption gap had not only narrowed but had reversed in certain categories.

Citing household consumption data, she said the urban bottom 40 percent now owns more televisions – 77.4 percent – compared with 72.1 percent for the top 20 percent. Mobile phone ownership, she said, had become nearly universal, rising from 66.5 percent to 94.3 percent.

“Household consumption data shows that the bottom 40 percent of the population is acquiring wealth and assets at a significantly faster rate than the top 20 percent,” the finance minister said, adding that inequality in asset ownership had “massively declined”.

Manufacturing push

Highlighting progress under the government’s manufacturing push, Sitharaman said mobile manufacturing units in India had increased from just two in 2014–15 to 300 in 2024–25. “Make in India should be seen as an achievement of the people. We should not ignore it or undermine it,” she said.

She also pointed to the rapid expansion of digital payments, saying Unified Payments Interface transactions grew by 60 percent in October 2025.

On employment trends, Sitharaman said the female unemployment rate had declined from 5.1 percent in 2018–19 to 3.2 percent. She added that India had emerged as a net exporter in sectors such as electronics, pharmaceuticals, engineering goods and defence.

Fiscal discipline

Against the backdrop of the Supplementary Demands for Grants, Sitharaman said the government was exercising restraint in seeking additional spending approvals. “I’ve reduced the number of supplementary demands. I don’t want it to be more than two at the extreme, if anything. In fact, I try to have just one supplementary,” she said.

She added that strict monitoring of fiscal balances and adherence to gradual fiscal consolidation had helped reduce the debt-to-GDP ratio to 48.9 percent.

Growth outlook remains strong

Despite the disruption caused by the Covid-19 pandemic, Sitharaman said India remained the fastest-growing major economy on a sustained basis. “Despite Covid India is the fastest growing for not one year but continuously,” she said, adding that “every institution is raising our growth outlook for this year and for the forthcoming year”.

She also cited comments by International Monetary Fund chief Kristalina Georgieva, who on October 14, 2025, said, “I’m very big on India because of the boldness of their reforms. India has proven the naysayers wrong.”