Producers Can Self-Certify Fertilisers

The certification procedure of sales of fertilisers under the concession scheme has been rationalised.

It now allows manufacturers to self-certify the quality of the product thereby reducing the time-lag between sales and release of concessions.

It is expected to ameliorate the problems of the fertiliser sector relating to the concession scheme for decontrolled phosphatic and potassic fertilisers, says an official release here.

As per the revised certification procedure, it is for the manufacturers to self-certify that the quality of the product conforms to the fertiliser control order norms.

The concerned state governments are required to certify only the first-point sales by fertiliser companies.

Submission of information on stocks, production/imports, dispatches and closing stocks will have to be done separately on a quarterly basis, the release said.

A technical audit and inspection cell, constituted to put a curb on sales of non-standard single super phosphate to farmers and to promote the use of specified grades of rock phosphate from notified sources, will conduct six-monthly inspections of SSP manufacturers, it said.

For this, the facility of 80 per cent on-account payments has been given only to those manufacturers of non-standard single super phosphate who use specified grades of rock phosphate as raw material and submit monthly information in prescribed forms on the use of raw material, it added.