Subsidy dues balloon amid record fertiliser sales during Covid lockdown

While total requirement in the current fiscal is pegged at around Rs 128,000 crore, the 2020-21 Budget provided Rs 71,309 crore towards fertiliser subsidy

As the country went into a lockdown from late March to control the spread of Covid-19, virtually bringing all economic activities to a grinding halt, one sector was seeing a resurgence in demand.

Fertiliser sales during the three months of total and partial lockdown saw a massive surge when compared with last year.

While a big reason for the booming sales is that agriculture was among the first sectors to be exempted from lockdown rules early in April, resulting in a surge in pre-kharif and kharif sowing, some amount of stock building also contributed to the jump in sales.

But