Govt making all efforts for ease of doing business in fertilizer sector, says Sadananda Gowda

NEW DELHI, 29 July 2020: Indian minister for chemicals and fertilizers D V Sadananda Gowda has said that government is making all efforts for ease of doing business in fertilizer sector so that it can be made Atmanirbhar in true sense and farmer community cab be served better.

Elaborating various initiatives taken by the government in this direction Gowda said the Department of Fertilizers has rolled out a More Farmer Friendly DBT 2.0 Version in July 2019 to improvise the existing DBT system and make it more user friendly. DBT 2.0 Version has three components namely, DBT Dashboard, PoS 3.0 Software and Desktop PoS version.

DBT Dashboards provide accurate real time information about the position of supply / availability / requirement of various fertilizers. It can be accessed by any general public at https://urvarak.nic.in

PoS 3.0 Software captures sale to different categories of buyers, generate sale receipts in multiple languages and provide soil health recommendations to the farmers to promote the balanced use of fertilizers. Desktop PoS Version is an alternative or added facility to PoS devices which is more robust and secure.

DBT in Fertilizers received 2 (two) awards namely, ‘SKOCH Gold Award for Governance’’ on 25 September 2019 and “Governance Now” Digital Transformation Award on 6 November 2019.

Highlighting the efforts made by government to ease the supply network for fertilizers in the country, Gowda stated that coastal shipping as an additional mode of transportation has been promoted.

For this the policy for reimbursement of freight subsidy for distribution of subsidized fertilizers through coastal shipping or / and inland waterways was announced on 17 June 2019 and 18 September 2019. During 2019-20, 1.14 LMT of fertilizers have been moved through coastal shipping.

Referring to cost fixation rules for urea units union minister said that with the approval of CCEA his Department vide notification dated 30th March, 2020 removed the ambiguities in the Modified NPS-III.

This will facilitate smooth implementation of Modified NPS-III which will result in grant of Additional Fixed Cost of INR 350/MT to 30 Urea units and grant of special compensation of INR 150/MT to Urea units which are more than 30 years old and converted to gas which will incentivize these units to remain viable for sustained production. It will also facilitate continued operations of the urea units resulting in sustained and regular supply of Urea to the farmers.