 "Govt may rationalise urea price, disincentivise chemical fertilisers")
Fertiliser subsidy accounts for second highest subsidy in India at around 22% of overall subsidy burden amounting to Rs 79.5 thousand crores. Given the high fiscal outlay, it is crucial to responsibly design and implement an efficient, effective and environmentally sustainable architecture for the distribution system of fertiliser.
The government has introduced several path-breaking reforms laying a strong foundation for this endeavour. These include introduction of the Fertiliser Management System to monitor operations across the value chain, neem coating of urea to prevent pilferage into non-farm uses, gas-pooling to increase production efficiency of domestic urea, Direct Benefit Transfer System enabling capture
