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Subsidies
only for paddy as Govt. owes fertilizer firms Rs. 1.6 billion Director National Fertilizer Secretariat Nimal Mithraratne told The Sunday Times, “The Treasury will provide the delayed subsidies to private sector fertilizer importers in instalments and there is no need to worry about these payments.” Earlier the government had to pay Rs.4,000 million to private sector fertilizer importers as overdue subsidies and the assurance came two days after fertilizer importers held a press conference and blamed the government for failure to pay the arrears. Private sector fertilizer importers provide more than 70 per cent of the country’s requirements of urea fertilizer. Meanwhile, the fertilizer subsidy is confined at present only to paddy farmers while other crops such as tea and coconut have not been taken into account. “It is apparent that paddy farmers are the most affected. So at the start we have decided to provide the fertilizer subsidy only to them,” Mr. Mithraratne said. To obtain the fertilizer subsidy, the farmer has to forward an application recommended by the local farmer organisation to the nearest branch of the Agrarian Services Department which will authorise the quantity of fertilizer allowed. The farmer can then obtain the subsidised fertilizer from any outlet of his choice. “We have introduced a very simple and transparent process to obtain the subsidised fertilizer,” Mr. Mithraratne said. |
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