Letter to the Editor
Dear Sir,
The Subsidy Black Hole
The staggering projected jump in India’s fertilizer subsidy bill to Rupees 3.4 lakh crore exposes egregious administrative short-sightedness.
Relying on an unrealistic Budget estimate of rupees 1.7 lakh crore reveals the government’s failure to foresee obvious global supply vulnerabilities. While external geopolitical shocks are real the Centre’s structural lacunae particularly its failure to stop massive illicit diversion of heavily subsidized urea sold at rupees 300/sack against a rupees 4,500 cost to industry are indefensible.
Allowing state level over allocations of up to seven sacks per farmer points to an absolute collapse of regulatory oversight. Ramping up domestic production now is an emergency band aid for years of policy inertia that left Indian agriculture entirely hostage to volatile foreign supply chains.
This fiscal recklessness coupled with a porous distribution apparatus directly compromises national sovereignty, reducing food security into an annual budgetary crisis.
Dr. Vijaykumar H K, T-6-327 colony, Shaktinagar, Raichur -584170
