Direct Benefit Transfers of Fertiliser subsidy - AeFDS (Aadhaar enabled Fertilizer Distribution System)
India
The Government has introduced Direct Benefit Transfer (DBT) system for fertilizer subsidy payments. Under the fertilizer DBT system, 100% subsidy on various fertilizer grades shall be released to the fertilizer companies, on the basis of actual sales made by the retailers to the beneficiaries. Sale of all subsidised fertilizers to farmers/buyers will be made through Point of Sale (PoS) devices installed at each retailer shop and the beneficiaries will be identified through Aadhaar Card, KCC, Voter Identity Card etc
Lead (category)
Government agency
Name of initiative lead (and partners)
Department of Fertilizers, Ministry of Chemicals & Fertilizers, Government of India
Categories of Digital initiative deliverables
Technology-neutral supporting services (incubation, finance, training, etc)
ICT products/solutions and services by category
E-Government Services
Digital Finance
Non ICT products and services (deliverables)
Direct Cash Transfer to farmers has been under discussion at various forum such as PMO, Cabinet Secretariat and NITI Aayog
Business and governance structure
Implementation of the DBT Scheme requires deployment of PoS devices at every retailer shop, training of retailers & wholesalers for operating PoS (Point of Scale) device. The sales to the beneficiary are captured through the PoS machines installed at the retailer’s end. All the Fertilizer sale transactions are captured online in the Integrated Fertilizer Management System (iFMS) system on real time basis.
DI ICT-deliverables format
Mobile applications
Cloud-based
Other (OTP based Aadhaar Authentication)
Primary stakeholders (beneficiaries, actors, enablers)
Farmers
Agribusiness / private organization
Size, scale or scope of primary stakeholders
A Project Monitoring Cell has been set up at Dept. of Fertilizers to oversee implementation of DBT exclusively. 24 State Coordinators have been appointed across all States to monitor the on-going DBT activities. Implementation of the DBT in Fertilizer Scheme required deployment of PoS devices at every retailer shop and training of retailers for operating PoS device. Across the country, Lead Fertilizer Supplier (LFS) have conducted 15954 training sessions till date. It is estimated that some 2.6 million PoS devices have been deployed across all States.
Digital Initiative development Stage
Fully operational - Growing and expanding stage
Measurable impacts on primary stakeholders and target beneficiaries
The government has estimated a saving of over 44,000 crore (5.3 Billion USD) in fiscal 2020–21 with the help of the direct benefit transfer (DBT) mechanism.
Initiative geographic scope (or coverage) (national, regional, sector specific, specific user co-horts etc)
National
PoS Devices employed in 32 States and Uts
On-line resource links (Web-page links, links to videos, links to reports, etc)
Link to Digital village
Link to Digital solution