See scope for improvements in subsidy system, says fertiliser secretary Chhabilendra Roul

News reports suggest that the finance ministry is looking at revamping the fertilizer subsidy system. Fertilizer secretary Chhabilendra Roul said a lot of improvements are required in the fertilizer subsidy system.

“We pay the subsidy to fertilizer companies instead of farmers. The farmers purchase fertilizer by biometric authentication and based on that the fertilizer companies submit their claims, and we pay the fertilizer companies. So it is a quasi direct benefit transfer (DBT) system, which has its own merits and demerits,” said Roul in an interview with CNBC-TV18.

Roul said, “In the present DBT regime there is no one-to-one relationship between the recipient of the benefit and consumption. So, we are trying to devise a method without disrupting the present system that is working quite well, on how to ensure that the beneficiaries directly get the benefit.”

We are also looking at international processes with regards to fertiliser subsidy, he said. For example in Nigeria they have e-coupons, in some countries there are e-vouchers or paper vouchers. While in some countries it is based on crops they cultivate, in some others it is the land ownership, in some countries it’s like Indian system. So, we are studying the efficacy of all these alternative systems and once we are convinced that a particular system will be conducive to our farmers, we will adopt it,” added Roul.

On gas availability front, he said we have a long-term arrangements with the petroleum ministry. “We are supposed to get domestic gas of around 31 mmbtu but because of shortage in production, we don’t get that much. Generally, we get around 16-16.5 mmbtu but our requirement is much more . Since, there are other national priorities, we cannot say that fertilizer sector should get the entire domestic gas production,” Roul added.

He further said that urea offtake is 10-12 lakh metric tonne more than last year.