India expected to set aside $21.1bn for fertilizer subsidies for next fiscal year

India is considering setting aside around four trillion rupees ($48bn) for food and fertilizer subsidies for the next fiscal year, Reuters reported on Wednesday, citing two unnamed government sources.

Food and fertilizer subsidies over the past fiscal year have accounted for around one ninth of India’s total budget spending of 45 trillion rupees, the news agency wrote.

Reuters’ sources reportedly said that next year’s food subsidies will come to 2.2tn rupees ($26.52 billion), which represents a 10% increase on projected spending for the current 2023-24 fiscal year.

The next fiscal year’s fertilizer subsidy is expected to be 1.75tn rupees ($21.1bn), down from the 2022-23 fiscal year estimate of nearly two trillion rupees, one of the sources reportedly said.

India’s finance minister, Nirmala Sitharaman, will lay out the 2024-25 budget on February 1.