The Centre on Wednesday announced a scheme – Pradhanmantri Bhartiya Janurvarak Pariyojna (PMBJP) under which fertiliser companies have been directed to sell their products under “Bharat” brand from October 2. This is for the first time that any scheme of the Centre has been named like this.
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BusinessLine was the first to report such a plan in March when the Fertiliser Minister held a Chintan Shivir with manufacturers to discuss the proposal’s implementation. “With the approval of competent authority, it is decided to implement One Nation, One Fertiliser by introducing single brand for fertilisers and logo under fertiliser subsidy scheme PMBJP,” an office memorandum issued by the Fertiliser Ministry said.
Logo to be used
It further said that a logo indicating PMBJP will have to be used on the fertiliser bags where companies will have to follow certain size of fonts for printing the brand and logo. The urea bags will be renamed as Bharat Urea and similarly, for other fertilisers such as DAP, MoP and NPK, the Ministry said.
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Two-thirds of the fertiliser bag will be used for the brand and logo while companies can print their name and details in one-third area.
The companies are advised not to procure old design bags from September 15 and exhaust them by December 31 as the scheme will be rolled out from Gandhi Jayanti. The Ministry has also shared the design of the brand name Bharat and the logo PMBJP.
The initial idea was to implement it from current kharif season. However, the government deferred the plan to rabi season, sowing of which starts from October, after companies expressed their inability to implement at a short notice.
The need for a single brand was felt as the Ministry observed that since companies get government’s freight subsidy, they don’t hesitate for criss-cross movement of fertilisers for longer distance. Also, brand-wise demand of fertilisers in the specific areas is one of the reasons of criss-cross movement. For instance, companies of Rajasthan sell in Uttar Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh-based plants sell in Rajasthan.