NEW DELHI: The government loses around Rs 6,000 crore annually due to illegal diversion of highly subsidised urea for industrial use, according to an official estimate. Fertiliser ministry officials said they have launched a nationwide crackdown to weed out this menace, and in the last twoand-a-half months, they have identified leakages worth Rs 100 crore through various covert operations.

While a bag of urea weighing 45 kg costs the farmer at Rs 266, the actual cost is around Rs 3,000. As a result, there has been a illegal diversion of the subsidised urea for industrial use. Officials said around 10-12 lakh tonnes of the subsidised chemical fertilisers gets diverted annually to various industries such as plywood, resin, crockery, molding powder, cattle feed, dairy and industrial mining explosives.

A sizeable share of this diverted urea is also illegally exported to neighbouring countries such as Nepal and Bangladesh since the price per bag in those countries is higher than in India.

Officials added unscrupulous elements have managed to find a way to get around neem coated urea, which was introduced to end diversion of the fertiliser for industrial use. An analysis of 59 samples of suspected urea showed that 22 of these had neem oil content. For industrial use, the diverted urea is de-coated.

They said the fertilisers department has also investigated GST evasion of industrial grade users of urea amounting to around Rs 63. 4 crore and has shared the information with the GST department. The GST departments have recovered around Rs 5 crore so far. “Unaccounted stock of agriculture grade urea of about 25,000 bags worth Rs 7. 5 crore has been recovered. Six persons have been arrested,” an official said.