Many fertilizer firms failed to renewal the Licenses: NITI Aayog

Hyderabad, Aug 19: NITI Aayog has revealed a study, which claimed that few fertilizer shops in Telangana and a large number in Andhra Pradesh, besides two other States, have shut down businesses as they did not renew licenses after the launch of Aadhaar enabled Fertilizer Distribution System earlier this year.

A study commissioned by NITI Aayog by a consulting firm found that nearly 300 fertilizer retailers in six districts of Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Telangana and Andhra Pradesh have not renewed their licences.

As many as 181 of these shops are in Krishna and West Godavari districts of Andhra Pradesh alone.

The Aadhaar enabled Fertilizer Distribution System or Direct Benefit Transfer was supposed to streamline fertilizer distribution with retailers with a view to cut down leakages and lower the subsidy of the Central Government, which was about Rs. 70,000 crore this year.

The government asked all fertilizer companies to deploy Point of Sale (PoS) devices at all retail points for acknowledging the receipt of fertilizer and issuing receipts to farmers.

The DBT system was a modified subsidy payment system where fertilizer companies will be paid 100% subsidy only after sale of fertilizer to farmers through PoS machines and biometric identification of buyers.

The consulting firm's study showed that improved tracking and reduction in diversion led to retailers leaving the system.