India may start 2021-22 with 'little' fertiliser subsidy arrears

Centre allocates extra Rs 65,000 crore for FY21, over the BE of Rs 71,309 crore

With fertiliser subsidies rising sharply due to lower releases by the Centre, thereby hitting the working capital requirements of companies, the finance ministry on Thursday allocated an additional Rs 65,000 crore for the sector in 2020-21.
 
This is over and above the budgeted Rs 71,309 crore for the year.
 
This will mean the fertiliser subsidy allocated for 2020-21 will be around Rs 1.36 trillion while the requirement for this year is about Rs 1.28 trillion, which includes Rs 48,000 crore as pending arrears from the last year.
 
The enhanced allocation was announced by Union Finance Minister Nirmala