Parliament Question: Black Marketing of Fertilizers

GOVERNMENT OF INDIA MINISTRY OF CHEMICALS AND FERTILIZERS DEPARTMENT OF FERTILIZERS LOK SABHA UNSTARRED QUESTION NO. 2263 TO BE ANSWERED ON: 31.07.2026 Black Marketing of Fertilizers ✝2263. Shri Ramashankar Vidharthi Rajbhar: Shri Utkarsh Verma Madhur: Will the Minister of Chemicals and Fertilizers be pleased to state: (a) the complaints received regarding black marketing, hoarding and illegal withdrawal of subsidised fertilizers in the country since 2021 till date State/district and year-wise for the Purvanchal region of Uttar Pradesh including Deoria, Ballia; (b) the number of inspections conducted jointly with the department of fertilizers and the quantity of fertilizers seized in cases involving misuse of Direct Benefit Transfer (DBT) system or Point- of Sale authentication gaps, State/district-wise; (b) the number of licences suspended/ cancelled and prosecution launched under the essential commodities Act or Fertilizer Control Order for such violations, State and district-wise for Uttar Pradesh; and (c) the corrective technological and enforcement measures introduced by the Union Government to prevent leakages, subsidised fertilizers distribution and ensure last mile accountability? ANSWER THE MINISTER OF STATE IN THE MINISTRY OF CHEMICALS & FERTILIZERS (SMT. ANUPRIYA PATEL) (a) to (d) Following steps are taken by the Government every season for ensuring timely and adequate availability of fertilizers in the country, including the State of Uttar Pradesh: (i) Before the commencement of each cropping season, Department of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare (DA&FW), in consultation with all the State Governments, assesses the State-wise & month-wise requirement of fertilizers. On the basis of requirement projected by DA&FW, Department of Fertilizers (DoF) allocates adequate quantities offertilizers to States by issuing monthly supply plan and continuously monitors the availability. (ii) The movement of all major subsidized fertilizers is monitored throughout the country by an on-line web-based monitoring system called integrated Fertilizer Management System (iFMS). (iii) The gap between demand (requirement) and production for Urea & other fertilizer is met through imports. The import for the season is also finalized well in advance to ensure timely availability. (iv) The State Governments are regularly advised to coordinate with manufacturers and importers for streamlining the supplies through timely placement of indents. (v) Regular coordination is done with the Ministry of Railways for giving sufficient rakes, priority to fertilizers and for timely evacuation of rakes for States. (vi) The distribution of fertilizers within the State at district/block level is done by the concerned State government. Further, in order to address the issues of black-marketing, hoarding, diversion of fertilizers and other malpractices, fertilizers are declared as an essential commodity under the Essential Commodities Act-1955 and notified under Fertilizer Control Order- 1985. State Governments are adequately empowered to take action against persons involved in such malpractices, as per provisions of EC Act. The complaints received at D/o Fertilizers level regarding these malpractices are sent to concerned State Government to take appropriate action under Essential Commodities Act-1955 and Fertilizer Control Order-1985. The State-wise information regarding complaints received in D/o Fertilizers through CP-GRAMS portal, which is an online platform to redress grievances related to fertilizers, from 01.04.2021 till date is placed at Annexure-A. Moreover, Department of Agriculture & Farmer’s Welfare, in consultation with the State Governments, is regularly monitoring the enforcement action taken by States against the cases of Black marketing, Hoarding, Sub-standard and Diversion on weekly basis. As informed by DA&FW, in the country in FY 2025-26, 4,84,663 raids have been conducted, 17,392 show cause notices have been issued, 6,941 licenses have been suspended/cancelled and 847 FIRs have been registered against defaulters. In FY 2026- 27 i.e. from 01.04.2026 to 24.07.2026, 1,69,031 raids have been conducted, 9,127 show cause notices have been issued, 2,868 licenses have been suspended/cancelled and 270 FIRs have been registered against defaulters to curb these malpractices; the State- wise information of enforcement activities along with quantity of fertilizers seized in FY 2026-27 are placed at Annexure-B. Further, State Government of Uttar Pradesh has informed that although a few cases relating to violations of the provisions of the Fertilizer Control Order-1985 have been detected during enforcement activities, no specific case related to black marketing, hoarding or illegal diversion of subsidized fertilizers has come to the notice of the State Agriculture Department in the districts of Deoria and Ballia, during the last few years under reference.Moreover, in order to reduce black marketing under DBT system for sale in Fertilizers, the sale of subsidized fertilizers is done by 100% Aadhaar based authentication of the beneficiary. Additionally, a monthly ceiling of 50 bags per buyer per month is placed for equitable distribution of fertilizers except for Telangana having the ceiling of 2 Bags per Acre (for Urea only) per buyer and Jammu & Kashmir having the ceiling of 60 bags per buyer per season. Based on the purchase, various reports are made available in the iFMS Dashboards for monitoring by respective State Officials. Additionally, under the ‘Framework for Fertilizer Sale’ in 40 identified districts of 20 States, the fertilizer is being sold to the identified farmer only as per the requirement based on land area and crop sown. Ceiling of bags is different in the Pilot districts under the ‘Framework for Fertilizer Sale’ as decided by the respective states. *******ANNEXURE-A Annexure referred to in reply to parts (a) to (d) of Lok Sabha Un-starred Question No 2263 for answering on 31.07.2026 DETAILS OF COMPLAINTs SINCE 01.04.2021 Sr. No. STATES No. of Complaints 1 Andaman And Nicobar Islands 1 2 Andhra Pradesh 14 3 Assam 2 4 Bihar 86 5 Chhattisgarh 18 6 Delhi 6 7 Gujarat 15 8 Haryana 36 9 Jammu And Kashmir 5 10 Jharkhand 5 11 Karnataka 21 12 Keralam 3 13 Madhya Pradesh 39 14 Maharashtra 17 15 Manipur 1 16 Mizoram 3 17 Odisha 8 18 Punjab 25 19 Rajasthan 41 20 Tamil nadu 14 21 Telangana 6 22 Uttar Pradesh 227 23 Uttarakhand 4 24 West Bengal 14 Grand Total 611ANNEXURE B Annexure referred to in reply to parts (a) to (d) of Lok Sabha Un-starred Question No 2263 for answering on 31.07.2026 Action taken by the State Governments to check black marketing, hoarding, quality check, diversion etc. during the Kharif 2026 season from 01.04.2026 to 24.07.2026 Black Marketing Hoarding Sub Standard Quality Diversion Quantity of Total material No. of No. of No. of No. of licenses Show States InspN eo c. to iof ns cS ah uo sw e canli cc ee ln les de /s s us regiF sI tR e red nS oh tio cw e cause cal nic ce en lls ee ds /s u regiF sI tR e red cS ah uo sw e canli cc ee ln les de /s s us regiF sI tR e red cS ah uo sw e can pc ee nll de ed d/s us regiF sI tR e red (ins te ei rz med s of c na ou tis ce e N cao n. co ef ll leic de /sn us se ps regiF sI tR e red /raids notice pended issued spended notice pended notice Bag) issued ended issued issued issued Andaman & 32 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 Nicobar Islands Andhra Pradesh 5270 4 4 0 94 66 4 37 0 0 0 0 0 0 135 70 4 Arunachal 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 Pradesh Assam 3204 6 0 0 6 0 0 0 0 0 4 4 0 0 16 4 0 Bihar 15074 652 627 57 1 149 15 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 653 776 72 Chhattisgarh 5143 209 48 5 34 9 2 63 0 1 0 0 1 30029 306 57 9 Dadar & Nagar 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 Delhi 150 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 Goa 19 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 Gujarat 7563 39 0 1 4 3 0 17 0 8 1 0 5 0 61 3 14 Haryana 494 8 7 0 22 31 6 9 6 0 3 6 2 0 42 50 8 Himachal 56 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 Pradesh Jammu & 9147 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 1562 0 0 1 Kashmir Jharkhand 633 10 0 0 25 2 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 35 2 1 Karnataka 15702 2132 2 0 0 0 0 76 0 0 5 0 6 4208 2213 2 6 Kerala 630 0 0 0 0 0 0 6 0 0 2 0 0 2202 8 0 0 Madhya Pradesh 1021 0 0 4 0 0 0 0 0 9 23 22 0 0 23 22 13 Maharashtra 40574 850 575 17 728 222 1 563 426 39 16 20 7 0 2157 1243 64 Manipur 61 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 Meghalaya 330 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 Mizoram 97 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 Nagaland 92 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 Odisha 9716 0 2 0 0 0 1 4 2 0 0 0 0 120 4 4 1 Puducherry 37 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 Punjab 1859 10 0 0 0 0 0 51 7 4 49 0 8 0 110 7 12 Rajasthan 8280 712 20 1 139 28 3 121 0 1 167 1 6 4288 1139 49 11 Tamilnadu 5377 0 0 0 138 0 6 221 0 0 118 0 2 0 477 0 8 Telangana 11658 28 9 6 0 0 0 0 2 0 3 2 1 0 31 13 7 Tripura 964 0 0 0 165 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 165 0 0 Uttar Pradesh 9896 1092 363 25 46 58 2 87 69 5 23 58 6 3826 1248 548 38 Uttarakhand 351 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 West Bengal 15601 5 2 0 264 16 0 35 0 0 0 0 0 0 304 18 0 Total 169031 5757 165 117 1666 584 40 1290 512 67 414 113 46 46235 9127 2868 270