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Govt gave wrong figures on fertiliser subsidy, says Pilot

Tara Shankar Sahay in New Delhi

Senior Congress Lok Sabha MP Rajesh Pilot alleged that that the Vajpayee government had projected wrong figures about fertiliser subsidy whose benefit had accrued to fertiliser plants instead of the deserving farmers.

Pilot told reporters during the party briefing that about Rs 40 billion to 50 billion in fertiliser subsidy had gone to fertiliser plants instead of going to the farmers.

He underscored that in 1997, the then government's 'gold-plating scheme' in the fertiliser sector envisaged incentive that worked out to one and a half time or double.

But instead of the farmers, the fertiliser plants managed to make about Rs 50 billion because of the BJP government that was then in power, Pilot pointed out.

Pilot contended that the support price on wheat had been fixed at Rs 580, whereas the central price issue was Rs 900 as announced by the government. When he asked the Public Distribution System Minister Shanta Kumar to explain where the remaining Rs 380 was going, Kumar had allegedly said that it was going into 'overheads'.

"I discovered that only Rs 138 per quintal on wheat was going towards overheads and that still left Rs 182 to be accounted for on every quintal," Pilot said.

Pilot also told the reporters that he had queried Madan Lal Khurana on the latter's letter to Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee. Khurana has written to the prime minister expressing his anguish over the price hike which, he alleged, had been at the behest of the US.

Business