Preparing the ground for direct fertilizer subsidy payment

27 November 2017

The public sector Fertilizers and Chemicals Travancore Limited (FACT), the lead fertilizer supplier in the State, has been in the forefront of preparing the ground for the Union government’s plans to launch direct transfer of subsidy benefits to farmers on fertilizer purchases from January 1, 2018.

Most of the technical works were completed and most of the ground covered, FACT sources said about its direct efforts to equip fertilizer dealers and retailers with the necessary equipment, awareness and knowledge about the new subsidy regime that has already been rolled out in some States across India.

Training for the core group and installation of the point-of-sale (POS) machines had been completed and only a small percentage of the dealers and retailers remained to be brought under the net, sources added. They said works only in a few districts remained to be completed.

A total of around 2,000 POS machines have been given to retailers and dealers for the new subsidy regime rollout. It had been a long process, sources said, pointing out that the preparations and the training programmes began in April 2017 after the Union government’s decision to pay subsidies to the farmers directly using the digital platform.

Sources said that each of the POS machines cost around ₹1,700 each and a total of around 2,000 machines were expected to be established to make the direct subsidy payment a smooth process.

There is some apprehension about the smooth rollout with farmers having to provide their Aadhaar numbers as well as fingerprints while buying fertilizers. Though connectivity was not much of a problem in Kerala, the network tended to be slow in some places, sources said.

Source: The Hindu