Union Minister for Chemicals and Fertilizers D V Sadananda Gowda on Tuesday said that no final decision has been taken on implementation of the direct cash transfer of fertiliser subsidy to farmers.
"The intention of government is that fertiliser subsidy should go direct to farmers bank account. The government is eager to implement this at the earliest," Gowda said during the Question Hour.
There are several issues on this issue have to be addressed. All the stakeholders need to be consulted, including state governments and farmers, to come to a conclusion how it could be done," Gowda said.
Gowda said he also heading Chintan Shivir Working Group on Direct Benefit Transfer (DBT) to farmers and 3-4 interaction sessions with the state government and with farmers have already taken place.
At present, the government transfers subsidies to fertiliser companies while farmers purchase the product at a lower rate.
In the proposed scheme, farmers will be directly transferred the subsidy for fertiliser purchases through their bank accounts.
However, the government has implemented Direct Benefit Transfer (DBT) system in fertiliser sector under which subsidy is released to the fertiliser companies on weekly basis, on the basis of actual sales made by the retailers to the beneficiaries through Point of Sale (PoS) devices installed at each retailer shop, he said.
About 2.26 lakh PoS devices/ desktop software have been installed at retail outlets across the country. Beneficiaries are identified through Aadhaar Card, Voter Identity Card, etc, he added.
(Published 23 March 2021, 19:17 IST)
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