Farming News: €15.6m Basic Payment Scheme refund to 95,000 farmers
The Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine (DAFM) has commenced issuing payments of €15.6 million in the form of BPS refunds to approximately 95,000 farmers, writes farming journalist, Catherina Cunnane.
This money, deducted from 2021 Basic Payment Scheme (BPS) payments – now known as BISS (Basic Income Support for Sustainability) – in line with EU regulations under the Financial Discipline mechanism, is now being reimbursed to farmers.
According to Minister Charlie McConalogue, these payments will bring the total paid to Irish farmers under the 2021 Basic Payment Scheme to over €1.18 billion.
The financial discipline mechanism is part of the annual budgetary procedure of the European Union.
The financial discipline mechanism involves a monetary deduction (1.65% for the 2021 reduction) from some direct payments to provide a financial crisis reserve for the European Union.
The crisis reserve is intended to provide additional support for the agricultural sector in the case of major crises affecting agricultural production or distribution.
If the crisis reserve is not activated in the financial year or it is not fully utilised, the unused balance is refunded to farmers in the subsequent financial year.
Last year, www.thatsfarming.com reported that in the region of 100,000 farmers benefitted from a BPS refund of over €21.7m.
The DAFM deducted the money from the 2020 Basic Payment Scheme (BPS) payments under Financial Discipline.
Farm schemes
The Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine (DAFM) has notified farmers of a number of key dates for the 2023 BISS (BPS replacement in new CAP) and related area-based schemes, as reported by us in this news article.
Farmers should take note of the dates listed below, earmarked by the DAFM:
- ANC advance payments commence issuing to clear cases from October 17th, 2023;
- BISS advance payments commence issuing to clear cases from October 24th, 2023;
- Eco-Scheme advance payments commence issuing to clear cases from October 31st, 2023;
- Balancing payments commence issuing to clear cases from December 1st, 2023;
- Other scheme payments commence issuing to clear cases from November/December 2023 (again, no specified date);
- Official end of BISS 2023 scheme year – December 31st, 2023.
Other key dates [BISS and related area-based schemes]:
- Land must be held from the beginning of the year until after May 31st, 2023 or for a period before May 31st, 2023, to December 31st, 2023, for BISS and for the entire calendar year for ANC;
- Amend your application (no penalty) – June 14th, 2023;
- Late application deadline (with a penalty) – June 23rd, 2023;
- Preliminary check letters will issue (no penalty) – June 2023;
- Preliminary check date for response – July 5th, 2023;
- Area Monitoring System (AMS) notifications will commence – June 2023. AMS will be introduced in 2023 for BISS, ANC, SIM and Protein Aid.
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