NewsGate Press Network

The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs on Wednesday the 2nd of November 2022 approved a hike in the price of ethanol procured by the public sector oil marketing companies (OMCs) from distilleries.

The hike has been approved under the Ethanol Blending Programme (EBP) for the forthcoming sugar season 2022-23 during ESY 2022-23 from December 1, 2022 to October 31, 2023, an official statement said.

The CCEA meeting took place on Wednesday chaired by the Prime Minister.

According to a official statement issued, the price of ethanol from C heavy molasses route has been increased from Rs 46.66 per litre to Rs 49.41 per litre while the price of ethanol from B heavy molasses route has been increased from Rs 59.08 per litre to Rs 60.73 per litre, the statement said.

The price of ethanol from sugarcane juice/sugar/sugar syrup route has been increased from Rs 63.45 per litre to Rs 65.61 per litre,

”All distilleries will be able to take benefit of the scheme and a large number of them are expected to supply ethanol for the EBP programme. Remunerative price to ethanol suppliers will help in early payment to cane farmers, in the process contributing to minimizing difficulty of sugarcane farmers,” the statement said.

”Government has been implementing Ethanol Blended Petrol (EBP) Programme wherein OMCs sell petrol blended with ethanol up to 10%.

This programme has been extended to the whole of India except Union Territories of Andaman Nicobar and Lakshadweep islands with effect from 01st April, 2019 to promote the use of alternative and environment friendly fuels.

This intervention also seeks to reduce import dependence for energy requirements and give a boost to the agriculture sector,” the statement said.

”Government has notified the administered price of ethanol since 2014. For the first time during 2018, the differential price of ethanol based on feed stock utilized for ethanol production was announced by the Government.

These decisions have significantly improved the supply of ethanol, consequently ethanol procurement by Public Sector OMCs has increased from 38 crore litre in Ethanol Supply Year 2013-14 (ESY – currently defined as ethanol supply period from 1st December of a year to 30th November of the following year) to contracts of over 452 crore litre in ongoing ESY 2021-22. The target of achieving average 10% blending has been achieved in June, 2022, much ahead of the target date of November, 2022,” it said.

Government has advanced the target of 20% ethanol blending in petrol from earlier 2030 to ESY 2025-26 and a “Roadmap for ethanol blending in India 2020-25” has been put in public domain, it added.