Government will introduce direct benefit transfer (DBT) in fertilizer sector after studying the result of the pilot project to be run in 16 districts across the country in the next two years, the Rajya Sabha was informed today.
"There are many challenges in introducing the DBT in fertilizer sector as there are 16 crore farm holdings across the country and it has to be ascertained who are the tillers of the land and who are the owners," Minister of Chemicals and Fertilizers Ananth Kumar said while replying to questions.
Kumar said unlike the DBT in LPG and other schemes, it cannot be introduced easily in fertilizer sector.
"We will run a pilot project this year and next year and then only we will take up DBT in fertilizers," he said, adding "The feasibility of DBT in fertilizer would be ascertained after analysing the result of the pilot."
He said once the pilot is completed in September 2017, the department will evaluate technical and operational challenges and issues and only after the results DBT will be introduced.
"This is an experiment. When we run this, we will then only learn from it and then move forward," he said.
"As per government of India decision, department of Fertilizers (DoF) will be conducting a pilot in 8 districts in the coming Rabi season (2016-17) and another 8 districts in Kharif season (2017-18) to capture authenticated retailer sales and buyer's details as a precursor to DBT iun fertilizer sector.
"The pilot will capture retailers, sellers and buyer details. The identified 8 districts for the pilot DBT in Rabi season are Kishanganj in Bihar, Maldah in West Bengal, Hoshangabad in Madhya Pradesh, Karnala and Kurukshetra in Haryana, Krishna and West Godavai in Andhra Pradesh and Nasik in Maharashtra," he said in a written reply.
To a question on the criterion selected for pilot project
districts, the Minister said it was done in consultation with the Agriculture Ministry.
"Pilot project is being taken up only in a few districts and cannot be taken up in 200 districts. We will take up other states like Punjab also," Kumar said.
Replying to another supplementary, he said Rs 8,000 to Rs 9,000 subsidy is being given per tonne of urea and if DBT is introduced then farmers will be burdened with heavy cost initially at the time of sowing, which they may not be able to bear.
To another question, he said while urea is controlled and there is full subsidy, the other fertilizers are half-controlled and with half subsidy.
"I agree that there is a need about thinking afresh about effectiveness of NBS scheme and of non-nutrient fertilizers," he said in reply to another supplementary.
Minister of State for Fertilizers Mansukhlal Mandavia said in response to another supplementary that whenever a pilot project is run, government makes preparations for data collection.
"The subsidy on urea per bag is Rs 6,000 on one metric tonne," Mandavia said.
Kumar added that urea's MRP is fixed at Rs 5,360 per tonne and the rest of the expenses are given as subsidy.
