On Friday, the government said that there is no proposal to minimize subsidies on fertilizers in the country.
Bhagwanth Khuba, Minister of State for Chemicals and Fertilisers wrote in his reply to the Lok Sabha saying, “No such study to understand the effect of reducing fertilizer subsidy on farmers has been conducted so far.” In a separate reply, under the Nutrient Based Subsidy (NBS) scheme, the minister said the government currently has no plan to control the rates of P&K fertilizers.
The government provides subsidies on both urea and non-urea fertilizers to assure farmers get the soil nutrients at affordable rates.
Regarding urea fertilizer, the minister said urea is offered to farmers at a statutorily notified maximum retail price of Rs 242 per bag of 45 kg (exclusive of charges towards neem coating and taxes as applicable).
The difference between the delivered cost of urea at the farm gate and net market realization by the urea units is given as a subsidy to the urea manufacturers/importer by the central government.
He added, “Accordingly, all farmers are being supplied urea at subsidized rates”.
For fiscal 2022-23, the subsidy for P&K fertilizers is estimated to be Rs 42,000 crores.
