The Modi government has finally moved in the direction of direct cash transfer to farmers by launching pilot projects for distribution of fertilizer in some of the districts of Odisha and Gujarat, reports Times of India.
Buoyed by the success of cash transfer in the case of LPG the government first wants to remove glitches as in the case of fertilizer as non-urban consumers cannot be tracked easily.
One of the proposals doing the rounds is envisaging subsidy payment to a company based on sales instead of the current system of fund transfer once fertilizer moves from plants to whole-sellers and warehouses. “The government does not have data on how much is actually sold in the market. By linking subsidy to sales, we will be able to plug some diversion and leakages,” a source said.
IFFCO MD Dr U S Awasthi who has been harping on the theme for a long time has welcomed the latest government move. In a tweet he said “ #IFFCO assure full support 2#GOI in implementation of #DBT on #Fertilizer @PMOIndia @AnanthKumar_BJP @arunjaitley @singhradhamohan.”
Besides helping farmers the move is a win-win situation both for the govt and fertilizer companies. While the government is eager to plug loopholes and check leakages, fertilizer cooperatives such as IFFCO and Kribhco feel a successful implementation of the DBT would ease huge backlog of subsidy payment.