The Minister of State for Petroleum and Natural Gas Shri Rameswar Teli in a written reply to a question in the Rajya Sabha today informed that the Government is promoting Ethanol Blended Petrol (EBP) Programme with broader objectives of providing boost to domestic agriculture sector, environment benefits, reducing import dependency and savings in foreign exchange.  Government has also notified the National Policy on Biofuels – 2018 which laid out indicative target of 20% blending of ethanol in petrol and 5% blending of biodiesel in diesel by 2030 in the country. Based on the encouraging initiatives on supply side of ethanol, Government has advanced the target of 20% blending of ethanol in petrol from 2030 to 2025-26.

The measures taken by the Government for the benefits of ethanol manufacturers  inter alia, include permitting multiple sugarcane and grain based feedstock for ethanol production, fixing feedstock wise remunerative ethanol procurement prices, introducing amended Industries (Development and Regulation) Act, 1951 for uninterrupted production, storage and movement of ethanol across the country, bringing ethanol meant for EBP Programme under lowest GST slab rate of 5% to increase production of ethanol and promote EBP Programme and introducing interest subvention schemes during 2018, 2019, 2020 and 2021 for augmentation and enhancement of ethanol production capacity in the country. Oil Marketing Companies (OMCs) have also signed long term ethanol off-take agreements with prospective project proponents to set up dedicated ethanol plants in deficit states.

******

RKM