In a letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Chief Minister O Panneerselvam requested the Centre to issue the notification for continuance of the subsidy immediately to SPIC, Tuticorin and Madras Fertilisers Ltd, which had been shut down on October 1 last due to lack of communication regarding the same.
He recalled that following a demand by his predecessor J Jayalalithaa in June, subsidy for the two plants had been extended upto September.
The Union Fertiliser Secretary had informed the state government that the Centre had decided to allow the operation of these units for another 100 days and that he had also asked Tamil Nadu to consider waiving VAT on naphtha used by them.
The notification for the continuance of subsidy had not yet been issued pending the confirmation from the Tamil Nadu Government on the waiver of VAT, the Chief Minister said.
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He said Tamil Nadu was already facing 'huge financial crunch' and any additional financial outgo at this juncture would be very difficult to manage.
The Chief Minister reiterated an earlier plea by Jayalalithaa that subsidy be continued till gas connectivity was provided to these two units by Centre.
He requested the state's allocation of urea may be made from these two plants for logistics and other reasons.
He also said oil marketing companies should claim only the export parity price for naphtha supplied to the fertiliser units instead of import parity price.