Central government gave big relief to farmers, said- no proposal to reduce subsidy on fertilizers

The Central Government on Friday said that there is no proposal to reduce the subsidy on fertilizers in the country. Minister of State for Chemicals and Fertilizers Bhagwant Khuba said in his written reply to the Lok Sabha, "No such study has been done so far to understand the impact of reducing fertilizer subsidy on farmers."

In a separate reply, the minister said that at present the government has no plan to regulate the rates of P&K fertilizers under the Nutrient Based Subsidy (NBS) scheme. The government provides subsidy on both urea and non-urea fertilizers to ensure soil nutrients to the farmers at affordable rates. With regard to urea fertilizer, the minister said that urea is provided to farmers at a statutorily notified maximum retail price of Rs 242 per bag of 45 kg (excluding neem coating and taxes as applicable).

Subsidy is given to registered P&K fertilizer manufacturers/importers who make these fertilizers available to farmers at subsidized rates. The subsidy for P&K fertilizers is estimated to be Rs 42,000 crore for the financial year 2022-23.