Fertiliser DBT may see phased rollout

A pilot project on direct benefit transfer of fertiliser subsidies has thrown up mixed results and unexpected challenges, which may force the Centreto either delay its targeted rollout date from June or implement it in phases.

Sources familiar with the development said that while the pilot study has shown favourable results, there has been difficulty in authenticating fingerprints of farmers on the point of sale (PoS) machine and transaction times have been longer.

There are also concerns on whether the new system will be able to handle the rush of kharif sowing, which will start with the advent of the South-West monsoon.

“For many farmers, due to manual labour, it was difficult to authenticate their fingerprints for Aadhaar,” said a person familiar with the development.

Further, while the time taken for each transaction has been reduced from 10 minutes to five, it needs to be cut further, to under three minutes.

“Apart from time taken in authentication, there are also problems of digital connectivity, which make it difficult to hasten transactions,” said the source.

If the transaction time is now reduced, there may be a big rush at the shops and that could be a challenge, said sources.

“Farmers usually require fertiliser immediately after rains. But if they don’t get it on the day they need it, their crop could suffer,” noted the source, adding that a second trip to the shop would also require more money and time.

With farming being a sensitive area, the government is now thinking of whether it should implement DBT in all districts from June 1 or take it slowly. “The bottomline is that farmers should not suffer,” said an official. Under the proposed scheme, the subsidy will be given directly to fertiliser companies after sale of fertilisers to farmers and buyers by retailers through PoS machines provided to them.

It is expected to help bring in savings in the subsidy bill of up to 20 per cent by plugging leakages. The Centre has retained the fertiliser subsidy at a targeted ₹70,000 crore for the fiscal year.

But the survey, which was conducted in six districts — Hoshangabad (Madhya Pradesh), Pali (Rajasthan), Una (Himachal Pradesh), Rangareddy (Telangana) Krishna and West Godavari (Andhra Pradesh) — also threw up some positive results.

It reveals that no shortage of urea has been reported in the last two years, while many retailers have also left the system due to improved tracking and reduction in diversion.

Instances of overcharging have also come down significantly, while the time taken for each transaction has improved from about 10 minutes in their previous survey to about five minutes, which compares favourably with manual transactions.

Responding to a question in Parliament, Minister of State of Chemicals and Fertilisers Mansukh Madaviya had said that over 93 per cent of farmers had been able to authenticate their IDs in three attempts.

“Retailers felt that it could be an issue during the peak period,” he informed the Lok Sabha last month. Retailers also found the new system to be easy, as it meant less book-keeping and stock updation.