New Delhi: The federal government is more likely to repair nutrient-based subsidy (NBS) price for urea earlier than rolling out the direct money switch (DCT) of urea subsidy to farmers accounts. The subsidy is not going to be common for farmers throughout the nation and shall be based mostly on soil well being and measurement of the landholding. Tenant famers would even be eligible to get the subsidy on manufacturing of legitimate tenancy paperwork.
It has been agreed in precept to carry urea beneath NBS subsidy in direction of step one to roll out DCT to farmers financial institution accounts. An inter-ministerial committee (IMC) will determine the speed of NBS subsidy as is being determined for different P&Okay fertilisers yearly, stated a senior fertiliser ministry official concerned in coverage making.
Fixing NBS price for urea will encourage balanced use of urea and usher in effectivity within the fertiliser trade by infusing competitors. The DCT is aimed toward changing the present direct profit switch (DBT) system the place farmers purchase urea at subsidised value, which is sort of one-third of the entire price, and the urea producers get the subsidy reimbursed after sale to farmers by the retailers. The sale linked with farmers Aadhar card, voter card or Kisan Credit score Card (KCC) is captured by way of the PoS machines and the ministry transfers subsidy after verifying the genuinity of the acquisition.
Authorities spends round ?55,000 crore on urea subsidy. By capping the urea consumption as per land measurement, we can save 10-15% of the subsidy quantity, stated an official.
In 2010, the federal government had launched the NBS beneath which a hard and fast quantity of subsidy is offered on every grade of subsidised phosphatic and potassic (P&Okay) fertilisers. Now for urea too, the subsidy shall be based mostly on the nutrient content material current in them. The full consumption of urea is round 30 MT, out of which 5 MT is imported.
Since price of manufacturing varies with vegetation, authorities should decide a hard and fast subsidy after which switch it into farmers accounts based mostly within the sale. A bag of 45 kg of urea prices round ?900 and farmers get it at ?242 at a reduction of over 70%, the official stated.
He stated that the subsidy quantity will rely upon the scale of landholding and soil well being and can fluctuate from state to state. We are going to first have the soil profile of the state and farmers of that exact state will get subsidy per hectare. The subsidy will differ for farmers for various states relying upon the urea requirement of the soil. For instance, Punjab farmers will get extra subsidy than West Bengals as land in Punjab requires extra urea than West Bengal, he stated.
The official stated that the fertiliser ministry should create a contemporary database of farmers for implementing DCT.
