Punjab Chief Minister Amarinder Singh. (File)
A REDUCTION in fertiliser subsidy by over Rs 9,000 crore as announced in the Union Budget is expected to hit Punjab’s farming community hard. The state, which is the biggest consumer of ‘fertilisers per hectare’ in the country, is set to lose almost Rs 900 crore on subsidy even if prices remain the same as they are now.
The subsidy amount on fertilisers has been slashed from Rs 79,996 crore in the 2019-20 budget to Rs 70,139 crore in the one presented last Friday — a reduction of Rs 9,857 crore or 12.4 per cent.
Punjab — with just 1.56 per cent area of the country — has been using 9 per cent of the total fertilisers, which include di-ammonium phosphate (DAP), urea, Muriate of Potash (MOP) and Super, used in India.
It is the highest usage per hectare.
Punjab’s loss would come to around Rs 887 crore, which is 9 per cent of the total reduction of Rs 9,857 crore in the subsidy amount.
Experts said even this amount may go up if fertiliser rates go up.
Currently in Punjab, there is a subsidy of Rs 10,000 to 12,000 per metric tonne (depending on fertilisers making plants) on urea. As a result, farmers were paying Rs 5,900 per metric tonne for urea. Similarly, farmers were getting Rs 502 subsidy per 50 kg bag of DAP.
“When the total subsidy amount on fertilisers has been decreased in the Budget, then certainly farmers need to pay more from their pockets even if the rates of fertilisers remain same and if the rates go up, it would cost them even more,” said Joint Director, Fertilisers, Agriculture Department, Jagtar Singh Brar.
He added that Punjab is the highest consumer of fertilisers and so it would naturally bear the highest cut on the subsidy share too.
“Diesel and farm machinery are already going up and now this cut on fertilisers subsidy will burn our pockets more at a time when crop prices are not increasing as the same pace as input cost,” said farmer Jagjit Singh from Jalandhar, adding that the government is hardly concerned about farmers.
“Punjab is the granary of the country and because of our farmers, the country could have a full grain stock. But the Centre is giving no concession to the state where there is Rs 1 lakh crore debt on farmers filling the stomachs of the entire country for decades,” said Jagmohan Singh, general secretary of BKU Dakaunda.
“The government is talking about Zero Budget natural farming (without use of fertilisers) and organic farming, in which organic fertilisers can be used. But what support has it been providing to them in terms of financial aid?” asked a senior officer of the Organic Farming Council Of Punjab, requesting anonymity. “There is a huge gap in the government’s saying and doing while it comes to implementing organic farming,” the officer added.
The state consumes around 35.33 Lakh Metric Tonnes (LMT) of fertiliser annually, which includes 6.70 LMT DAP in both rabi and kharif seasons and 26.83 LMT of urea in both seasons.
Apart from this, 1.80 LMT of MOP and Super are used across the year. Punjab’s farmers are using 245 kg fertilisers per hectare per crop.
The Union Budget was read out by Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on February 1.