Urea is provided to the farmers at a statutorily notified Maximum Retail Price (MRP). The MRP of 45 kg bag of urea is Rs.242 per bag (exclusive of charges towards neem coating and taxes as applicable). 

• The difference between the delivered cost of urea at farm gate and net market realization by the urea units is given as subsidy to the urea manufacturer/importer by the Government of India.
• Accordingly, all farmers (including poor and marginal farmers) are being supplied urea at the subsidized rates.
• Further, the Government has implemented Nutrient Based Subsidy Policy for Phosphatic and Potassic (P&K) Fertilizers.
• Under the policy, a fixed amount of subsidy, decided on annual basis, is provided on subsidized P&K fertilizers depending on their nutrient content. 

Benefits of Neem Coated Urea:

As per the final report prepared by Agricultural Development and Rural Transformation Centre (ADRTC), Bengaluru, Neem Coated Urea has led to:

1. Improvement in soil quality.
2. Decrease in cost of pest & disease control and weed management.
3. Improvement in the yield of all crops and their by-products.
4. Highest incremental income in case of tur, followed by sugarcane, soybean, paddy, jute and maize crops.
5. Diversion of normal urea to other than crop production purposes has completely stopped post introduction of Neem Coated Urea (NCU).

What is fertiliser subsidy?

Farmers buy fertilisers at MRPs (maximum retail price) below their normal supply-and-demand-based market rates or what it costs to produce/import them.

• For instance, The MRP of neem-coated urea, is fixed by the government at Rs 5,922.22 per tonne, whereas its average cost-plus price payable to domestic manufacturers and importers comes to around Rs 17,000 and Rs 23,000 per tonne, respectively. 
• The difference varies according to plant-wise production cost and import price and is footed by the Centre as subsidy.

Decontrolled fertilisers:

• The MRPs of non-urea fertilisers are decontrolled or fixed by the companies. 
• The Centre, however, pays a flat per-tonne subsidy on these nutrients to ensure they are priced at “reasonable levels”.
• Thus, decontrolled fertilisers, retail way above urea, while they also attract lower subsidy.

How is the subsidy paid and who gets it?

The subsidy goes to fertiliser companies, although its ultimate beneficiary is the farmer who pays MRPs less than the market-determined rates. 

• Companies, until recently, were paid after their bagged material had been dispatched and received at a district’s railhead point or approved godown.

• From March 2018, a new so-called direct benefit transfer (DBT) system was introduced, wherein subsidy payment to the companies would happen only after actual sales to farmers by retailers. 

How it is implemented?

Each retailer, now has a point-of-sale (PoS) machine linked to the Department of Fertilisers’ e-Urvarak DBT portal. 

• Anybody buying subsidised fertilisers is required to furnish his/her Aadhaar unique identity or Kisan Credit Card number. 

• The quantities of the individual fertilisers purchased, along with the buyer’s name and biometric authentication, have to be captured on the PoS device.
• Only upon the sale getting registered on the e-Urvarak platform can a company claim subsidy, with these being processed on a weekly basis and payments remitted electronically to its bank account.

The purpose of new payment system:

The main motive is to curb diversion. 

• Being super-subsidised, urea is always prone to diversion for non-agricultural use — as a binder by plywood/particle board makers, cheap protein source by animal feed manufacturers or adulterant by milk vendors — apart from being smuggled to Nepal and Bangladesh.

• The scope for leakage was more in the earlier system, right from the point of dispatch till the retailer end. 
• With DBT, pilferage happens only at the retailer level, as there is no subsidy payment till sales are made through POS machines and subject to the buyers’ biometric authentication.

What is the next step being proposed?

At present, the Centre is following a “no denial” policy. 

• Anybody, non-farmers included, can purchase any quantity of fertilisers through the PoS machines. 
• That obviously allows for bulk buying by unintended beneficiaries, who are not genuine or deserving farmers. 
• While there is a limit of 100 bags that an individual can purchase at one time, it does not stop anyone from buying any number of times. 
• One plan under discussion is to cap the total number of subsidised fertiliser bags that any person can buy during an entire kharif or rabi cropping season. 

The fertiliser requirement of a typical farmer

It depends on the crop.

• A farmer growing irrigated wheat or paddy may use about three 45-kg bags of urea, one 50-kg bag of DAP and half-a-bag (25 kg) of MOP per acre. 

• A total of 100 bags would easily cover the seasonal requirement of a 20-acre farmer. 
• And that could possibly be a reasonable cap to impose; those wanting more can well afford to pay the unsubsidised rates for the extra bags.

How much subsidy does a farmer really get per acre?

• For three bags urea, one bag DAP and half-a-bag MOP per acre, the farmer would spend a total of Rs 2,437 at existing MRPs. 
• The corresponding subsidy value – at an average of Rs 13,000 per tonne (Rs 585/bag) for urea, Rs 511.55/bag for DAP and Rs 303.5/bag for MOP – will add up to Rs 2,418.3 per acre.

Taxes paid by the Farmers:

The farmers are also taxed on other inputs. 

• Diesel, where the incidence of excise and value added tax is Rs 42.19 on a litre retailing at Rs 70.46 in Delhi. 
• On 30 litres of average per-acre consumption for paddy or wheat, that will be nearly Rs 1,266. So, for every Re 1 spent on fertiliser subsidy, more than half is recovered as diesel tax.
• In addition, farmers pay goods and service tax (GST) on inputs, ranging from 12% on tractors, agricultural implements, pumps and drip/sprinkler irrigation systems to 18% on crop protection chemicals.
• Fertiliser itself is taxed at 5%. 
•  

• And since there’s no GST on farm produce, they cannot claim any input tax credit on their sales, unlike other businessmen.

Way Forward

The time has come to seriously consider paying farmers a flat per-acre cash subsidy that they can use to purchase any fertiliser. The amount could vary, depending on the number of crops grown and whether the land is irrigated or not. 

This is, perhaps, the only sustainable solution to prevent diversion and also encourage judicious application of fertilisers, with the right nutrient (macro and micro) combination based on proper soil testing and crop-specific requirements.

Source: Indian Express