Modi Govt Saved Rs 10,800 Crore Through Direct Benefit Transfer Of Fertiliser Subsidy In First Year Itself, Says Report

In a major success for the Modi Government, a study released on Thursday (10 October) claimed that during the very first year of Direct Benefit Transfer (DBT) Implementation scheme for fertilisers subsidies the union government has saved a whopping Rs 10,800 crore ($1.54 billion), reports The Economic Times.

The fertiliser subsidy transfer through DBT was initiated by the government in October 2017. Under the initiative, the union government started to directly remit the subsidy amount to the companies after the retailer would sell the fertiliser to the farmer and record the transaction in an Aadhaar authenticated system.

The initiative by the government according to the assessment by MicroSave Consulting (MSC) has enabled real-time tracking of the movement, requirement, stocks and distribution of the fertilisers. The initiative has also enabled easier paperwork by lessening the paperwork.

This comes as a major improvement over the earlier system of subsidy disbursement under which the union government would pay the subsidy after the production and dispatch of the fertilisers, without any record of consumption and distribution of the same.

It should be noted that the union government incurs an annual fertiliser subsidy bill of close to Rs 70,000 crore.