 "Dharmendra Pradhan (File photo)")
The sugar industry needed to ensure that five per cent ethanol blending was achieved by the end of the 2015-16 sugar season, Minister of State for Petroleum & Natural Gas Dharmendra Pradhan said on Friday.
The sugar industry should ensure gains accruing from fixed ethanol price were passed on to farmers, added Pradhan, speaking at a workshop on ethanol in New Delhi. He assured the industry that he would talk to the finance ministry for giving priority-sector lending facility for ethanol production. Pradhan also said there were plans to augment ethanol storage facility at oil marketing companies.
Speaking at the same event earlier in the day, Indian Sugar Mills Association President Tarun Sawhney had said India was close to achieving an average five per cent ethanol blending across the country, mainly because of a fixed-price mechanism.
Sawhney highlighted the need for cars and other vehicles that could run on 100 per cent ethanol, and also said there was a need to set up several more sugarcane-based ethanol distilleries to increase the average blending to 10 per cent.
Lead time for ethanol-based distilleries needed to be brought down to encourage investments and aid setting up of more such units, said Sawhney. "There is no chance of a sharp decline in sugarcane output in the next few years."
Calling for banks to include ethanol in priority-sector lending, Sawhney said India needed 2.66 billion litres of ethanol to achieve 10 per cent blending, while the total capacity of the sugar industry was about two billion litres.
