Union Minister of State for Consumer Affairs, Food & Public Distribution, Sadhvi Niranjan Jyoti in a written reply in the Lok Sabha informed that in last 10 years, sugar mills have earned revenue of more than Rs 94,000 crores from sale of ethanol which has added to the bottom line of sugar mills.
She also stated that the ethanol production capacity in the country is about 1380 crore litres out of which about 875 crore litres is molasses based and about 505 crore litres is grain based. Installation of new ethanol distilleries/expansion of existing ethanol distilleries has brought investment opportunities worth over ₹ 40,000/- crore in urban as well as rural areas.
“Due to effective Government policies, the supply of ethanol to Oil Marketing Companies (OMCs) has increased by more than 13 times to about 502 crore litres in Ethanol Supply Year (ESY) 2022-23 from 38 crore litres in ESY 2013-14. The blending percentage has also increased from 1.53% in ESY 2013-14 to targeted 12% in ESY 2022-23,” minister further added.
Through the sale of ethanol, the cash flows for sugar mills have improved resulting in prompt payment to cane farmers. Sugar mills have cleared 98.3% of cane dues of farmers in Sugar Season (SS) 2022-23 and 99.9% of cane dues in previous SS 2021-22.
Production of ethanol has led to proportionate reduction in the import of petrol or crude oil which has resulted in saving of foreign exchange for India. In 2022-23, with production of about 502 crore litres of ethanol, India has saved about ₹ 24,300 crores of foreign exchange and improved India’s energy security.
(With inputs from PIB)
That’s good news. But how much was the segmental revenue from Sugar and Ethanol in 2022-23? Did the overall Sugar recovery come down because sugar mills were rejecting more sugar in molasses ( deliberate poor exhaustion)?
I forsee in the near future, Govt may prefer even sugar import to enhance energy security!