The Agriculture Department officials and lead fertilizer supplying company to the State are working against time to deploy point of sale (PoS) devices at all fertilizer retailers in view of the State going live in implementing the direct benefit transfer (DBT) for fertilizer purchase from January 1.
Telangana will implement the DBT on fertilizers from January 1 along with Jammu & Kashmir, Gujarat, Himachal Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Karnataka, West Bengal, Odisha, Bihar and Jharkhand States.
In a letter addressed to District Collectors, Agriculture Production Commissioner C. Parthsarathi asked the former to ensure 100% deployment of PoS (point of sale) devices before December 20 at all retailers and wholesalers of fertilizers. New retailers would be given PoS devices as and when the licences are issued by the authorities concerned.
Officials stated that there were about 6,000 fertilizer retailers in Telangana besides another 1,000 to 1,500 Primary Agriculture Cooperative Societies and outlets run by District Cooperative Marketing Society indulging in sale of fertilizers to farmers.
However, according to information on the Ministry of Chemicals and Fertilisers website, out of the 374 only 247 retailers in Rangareddy and Kumram Bheem-Asifabad districts were using PoS devices as on December 14.
The APC explained that the retail dealers were required to be ready with the company-wise, plant-wise, product-wise details of available stocks, duly certified by the mandal agriculture officers concerned and they have to enter the certified stocks in PoS devices by December 30.
Under the DBT scheme, the fertilizer companies would get disbursement of subsidy amount only if the sales were conducted with the help of PoS devices.
