Centre panel to examine raising ethanol blending to 25%: Pralhad Joshi
The Centre has formed a committee to examine raising India’s ethanol blending target to 25%. Food Minister Pralhad Joshi said the final decision will depend on its recommendations, while noting ethanol production has helped sugar mills clear farmer dues.
Hubballi: Union Minister for Food, Public Distribution and Consumer Affairs, New and Renewable Energy and Education, Pralhad Joshi, said in Hubballi on Tuesday that the Central government had set up a committee to examine raising the ethanol blending target to 25 per cent, with a final decision to depend on the panel’s recommendations, The New Indian Express reported.
Joshi, the Member of Parliament from Dharwad, said the ethanol blending policy was originally conceived during the Atal Bihari Vajpayee government in 2003-04, with implementation beginning under the subsequent United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government, when blending levels stood at just over one per cent.
He said the Narendra Modi government had continued the programme and scaled it up in a phased manner to reach the current blending level of 20 per cent.
Defending the policy against criticism over the proposed increase, Joshi said ethanol production had helped sugar mills clear arrears owed to sugarcane growers. He said the Centre had extended loans of around Rs 14,000 crore to sugar mills to help clear farmer dues after the Modi government took office, at a time when mills owed large sums to growers.
Joshi said the government’s decision on raising the ethanol blending mandate to 25 per cent would depend on the recommendations of the newly constituted committee.
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Source : ChiniMandi
