Budget 2019: Minister Sadananda Gowda happy as fertilizer subsidy up by Rs 10,000 Cr

BENGALURU: Union Chemicals and Fertilizer Minister DV Sadananda Gowda has thanked Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman for raising budgetary allocation towards the fertilizer subsidy by about Rs 10,000 crore and said that the increased allocation would help in increasing the efficiency of subsidy transfers to the farmers through DBT.

The fertilizer subsidy allocation has jumped from Rs. 70,090 crore to Rs. 79,996 crore. Out of this allocation, Rs 53,629 crore is towards urea subsidy and Rs 26,367 crore towards nutrient based subsidies.

The fiscal policy statement of the budget mentions that a total of 610.08 lakh metric tonnes (LMT) of fertilizers have been sold under DBT scheme from March 2018 to May 2019. As this scheme has facilitated in removal of fake or duplicate beneficiaries, there has been a reduction of 120.88 in fertilizer sales to retailers after the implementation of DBT scheme, according to the Union Minister.