New Delhi, Apr 20: A Parliamentary panel has questioned the Fertiliser Ministry's estimate that the subsidy will touch Rs 90,000 crore this year and asked the government to reassess the figures.

"The committee (members) is apprehensive about the authenticity of subsidy amount to the tune of Rs 90,000 crore as submitted by the Secretary, Department of Fertilisers," the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Chemicals and Fertilisers, headed by Anant Geete, said in its latest report.

The panel expressed surprise over the tremendous increase in the subsidy amount during the last five years. "It (subsidy) has gone up almost six times since 2004-05".

Asking the department to submit industry-wise break up of the subsidy amount, the panel said the issue regarding quantum of such sops should be re-evaluated.

"The committee, therefore, recommend that after re-evaluating the subsidy amount, the government should make sufficient budgetary provision to meet the fertiliser subsidy bill including the carry over from the previous year," the report said.

Against the current estimate of Rs 90,000 crore, the availability in the budget estimate for 2008-09 is only Rs 31,000 crore. The committee noted that during last few years the fertiliser subsidy bill has increased substantially mainly because of sharp increase in global prices of fertilisers.

Earlier this month, Chemicals and Fertilisers Minister Ram Vilas Paswan had said: "Last year we paid Rs 45,000 crore subsidy. This year, we started from Rs 60,000 crore and today subsidy is estimated to increase to Rs 1 lakh crore for the same quantity of fertiliser."

The minister has already written to the Prime Minister for enhancement of the subsidy provision.