The Union Minister of State for Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution, Ms. Sadhvi Niranjan Jyoti in a written reply to a question in Lok Sabha today shared that the current ethanol production capacity in the country for ethanol blending with petrol and other uses is about 947 crore litres (which includes 619 crore litres of molasses based production capacity and 328 crore litres of grain based production capacity).
The state-wise & feed-stock wise details of installed ethanol production capacities in the country are at Annexure.
Government of India has been implementing Ethanol Blended Petrol (EBP) Programme throughout the country wherein Oil Marketing Companies (OMCs) sell petrol blended with ethanol. Under EBP Programme, Government has fixed the target of 10% and 20% blending of ethanol with petrol by 2022 and 2025 respectively.
The Central Government has taken various steps to increase production and utilization of ethanol which are enumerated as under:
- In order to augment ethanol production capacity in the country, the Government has notified Ethanol Interest Subvention Scheme(s) inter-alia extending financial assistance in the form of interest subvention @ 6% per annum or 50% of rate of interest charged by banks/financial institutions whichever is lower for five years including one year moratorium;
- The National Policy on Biofuels-2018, allowed the production of ethanol from a variety of feed-stocks like agricultural residues (rice straw, cotton stalk, corn cobs, saw dust, bagasse etc.); starch containing materials such as maize, cassava, rotten potatoes etc.; damaged food grains like wheat, broken rice etc; and foodgrains like rice apart from sugarcane and other sugar containing materials (like sugar beet, sweet sorghum etc).
- The Government and OMCs have been fixing remunerative prices of ethanol produced from different feed-stocks for supply to OMCs;
- The Government has amended the Industries (Development & Regulation) Act, 1951 vide Notification dated 14.5.2016 to ensure free movement of ethanol in the country;
- The Government has also reduced Goods & Service Tax (GST) on ethanol meant for Ethanol Blended with Petrol (EBP) Programme from 18% to 5% w.e.f 27.7.2018.
Annexure
| State/UT | No. of Molasses Based projects | Installed Capacity (in Cr ltrs p.a.) | No. of Grain Based projects | Installed Capacity (in Cr ltrs p.a.) | Total Installed Capacity (in Cr ltrs p.a.) |
| Andhra Pradesh | 8 | 8.6 | 15 | 38.8 | 47.4 |
| Bihar | 8 | 16.3 | 5 | 22.8 | 39.1 |
| Chhattisgarh | 0 | 0 | 3 | 4.8 | 4.8 |
| Daman & Diu | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Delhi | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Goa | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Gujarat | 12 | 15.3 | 0 | 0 | 15.3 |
| Haryana | 4 | 8.6 | 15 | 49.1 | 57.6 |
| Himachal Pradesh | 0 | 0 | 3 | 2.7 | 2.7 |
| Jammu & Kashmir | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Jharkhand | 0 | 0 | 2 | 12.4 | 12.4 |
| Karnataka | 33 | 100.2 | 6 | 18.5 | 118.7 |
| Madhya Pradesh | 3 | 4.8 | 8 | 18.0 | 22.8 |
| Maharashtra | 116 | 225.3 | 28 | 42.7 | 268.0 |
| Odisha | 0 | 0 | 2 | 3.1 | 3.1 |
| Punjab | 3 | 5.1 | 18 | 76.8 | 82.0 |
| Rajasthan | 0 | 0 | 8 | 12.2 | 12.2 |
| Tamil Nadu | 12 | 17.4 | 0 | 0 | 17.4 |
| Telangana | 3 | 6.8 | 2 | 7.3 | 14.1 |
| Uttar Pradesh | 58 | 205.3 | 2 | 3.4 | 208.7 |
| Uttarakhand | 3 | 5.8 | 0 | 0 | 5.8 |
| West Bengal | 0 | 0 | 3 | 10.2 | 10.2 |
| Andaman &Nicobar | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Arunachal Pradesh | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Assam | 0 | 0 | 2 | 3.6 | 3.6 |
| Chandigarh | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Dadar& Nagar Haveli | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Kerala | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Ladakh | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Manipur | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Meghalaya | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Mizoram | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Nagaland | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Pondicherry | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Sikkim | 0 | 0 | 1 | 2.2 | 2.2 |
| Tripura | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Total | 263 | 619.4 | 123 | 328.5 | 947.9 |
