The government has issued 7% fertiliser bonds worth Rs 10,000 crore to 23 companies, representing the subsidy given during FY09. These bonds are not eligible to be kept with banks as SLR but can be bought by insurance companies, in the ‘other approved securities’ list and as special bonds by PF/Gratuity/Superannuation funds. Moreover, they can also be eligible for repo transactions.
The fertiliser companies will offload these bonds to these institutions because they will need the cash. Some of the main companies who got bonds are IFFCO (Rs 2,981 crore), Coromandel Fertilisers (Rs 1,148 crore), Indian Potash (Rs 1,094 crore), Zuari Industries (Rs 730 crore) and Tata Chemicals (Rs 612 crore).