Recently prices of fertilisers have soared like anything and the govt is worried on this score. Union Minister of State for fertiliser has instructed his ministry to find out if the fertiliser manufacturing companies are passing on subsidy to farmers.
The minister has asked the Secretary of his ministry to enquire thoroughly into the matter and to demand utilisation certificates from the fertiliser companies each month to see what they do with subsidy.
Official sources say the minister has mentioned in his note that subsidy on fertilisers is given so that the retail costs of fertilisers do not increase erratically.
If the retail prices of fertilisers keep going up, the very purpose of giving subsidy stands defeated. The decontrol of the retail prices does not mean the fertiliser companies are free to maximise their profits at the cost of the poor farmers. The companies should rein in their greed, the minister remarked in his note.
It bears repetition that it was against the backdrop of a continuous rise in the prices of fertilisers that a committee of secretaries had recently met and considered the NBS policy from all possible angles.
Sources add India imports most of its fertilisers and therefore how the fertiliser companies sell the commodity on the market becomes a big deal.