Government taking steps for ease of doing business in fertiliser sector: D V Sadananda Gowda

The government is taking measures for ease of doing business in the fertiliser sector and to ensure smooth supply of soil nutrients to farmers, Chemicals and Fertilisers Minister D V Sadananda Gowda said.

He said the government is making all efforts for ease of doing business in the sector so that it can be made 'aatmanirbhar' in true sense and farmer community can be served better, an official statement said on Saturday.

Elaborating various initiatives taken by the government in this direction, Gowda said the fertiliser department had rolled out a farmer-friendly DBT (Direct Benefit Transfer) 2.0 version in July 2019 to improvise the existing system.

DBT 2.0 has three components namely DBT Dashboard, PoS 3.0 Software and Desktop PoS version.

DBT Dashboard provides accurate real-time information about the position of supply/availability/ requirement of various fertilisers. It can be accessed by the general public, the statement said.

PoS 3.0 Software captures sale to different categories of buyers, generates sale receipts in multiple languages and provides soil health recommendations to farmers to promote the balanced use of fertilisers.

Desktop PoS version is an alternative or added facility to PoS devices which is more robust and secure.

Highlighting the efforts made by the government to ease the supply network, Gowda said it has promoted coastal shipping as an additional mode of transportation.

The policy for reimbursement of freight subsidy for distribution of subsidised fertilisers through coastal shipping or/and inland waterways was announced in June and September last year.

During 2019-20, 1.14 lakh tonne of fertilisers has been moved through coastal shipping.

Referring to cost fixation rules for urea units, Gowda said the department vide a notification dated March 30, 2020, removed the ambiguities in the Modified NPS-III and an additional fixed cost of Rs 350 per tonne will be provided to 30 urea units.