At its meeting on Wednesday, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh-led Informal Group of Ministers (IGoM) on West Asia noted that a pattern has emerged of industrial users substituting their entitled industrial procurement with retail purchases to capture the protected price, alongside instances of black marketing by certain dealers.
The Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas, Oil Marketing Companies (OMCs) and the state governments have intensified field enforcement, and the industry associations are being engaged to remind members of the conduct expected, the government said in a press statement issued on the proceedings of the IGoM’s meeting.
The meeting also noted that during the present disruption, public sector OMCs have refrained from passing the full international price into retail, absorbing approximately Rs 550 crore per day as losses. “This cushion is intended for retail consumption alone, and industrial and commercial diesel tracks international prices as a matter of standing policy,” the government said.
Amid India continuing to diversify the sourcing of its energy supplies, the Defence Minister directed officials to make continuous efforts to enhance the nation’s preparedness in light of the evolving situation in West Asia. Singh stressed that fertilisers and other essential agricultural inputs should remain adequately available to farmers to ensure that food prices in the country continue to remain stable.
In a post on X, Singh said that the supply situation in the country today is normal, adding that the citizens should avoid panic purchases of petrol, diesel and liquefied petroleum gas.
The IGoM was also informed that India’s fertiliser stocks remain comfortable ahead of the kharif 2026 sowing season, with the government asserting that availability across key nutrients is well above the usual levels despite recent global supply disruptions.
According to the agriculture department, fertiliser requirement for kharif 2026 has been assessed at 39.05 million tonnes against which total stocks in hand stood at around 20.04 million tonnes, which is 51 per cent more than the seasonal requirement.
Officials said this is significantly higher than the normal stocking level of around 33 per cent for this period. Data shared by the Department of Fertilizers (DoF) showed that since the recent global supply crisis, domestic production and imports together have added around 12.24 million tonnes of fertilisers to the country’s availability pool.
The government said that 10 meetings of the Empowered Group of Secretaries (EGoS) have been held so far to review supply challenges and ensure uninterrupted fertiliser availability across the country.
Apart from Defence Minister Singh, other Union ministers who attended the sixth meeting of the IGoM included JP Nadda, Manohar Lal, Hardeep Singh Puri, Prahlad Joshi, Ashwini Vaishnaw, Kiren Rijiju and Sarbananda Sonowal.
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