Ethanol blended petrol to start from Nov 1

New Delhi, Sep 8 (UNI) Ethanol blended petrol will be marketed all over the country from November one this year.

With this the stage is set for taking up the national programme for blending five per cent ethanol with petrol countrywide except North East, Jammu and Kashmir, Lakshadeep and andaman and Nicobar Islands.

Union Petroleum and Natural Gas Minister Murli Deora has directed Oil Marketing Companies (OMCs) for early implementation of the Ethanol Blended Petrol (EBP) Programme on a national scale.

In this connection, the process of procurement of ethanol by the OMCs through national competitive bidding has commenced, as the companies have begun issuing public notice for procurement of indigenous anhydrous ethanol in different states.

Earlier, the 5 per cent ethanol blended programme (EBP) was started in 9 sugarcane growing states and contiguous Union Territories (UTs) in 2003. This, however, did not make substantial headway for a number of reasons like decline in sugarcane production and, restrictions on interstate movement of ethanol and the backing out by suppliers.

The procurement of ethanol from the domestic market would help the sugarcane-growing farmers with better returns and supplement the availability of petroleum products in the country.

The Petroleum Minister has been personally directing the efforts to revive this programme. A series of meetings have been held with the stakeholders such as ethanol suppliers, Indian Sugar Mills Association (ISMA) and the OMCs.

Mr Deora had earlier directed that open bidding process should be commenced forthwith by the OMCs for purchasing ethanol in which all suppliers can participate and the price discovery is achieved in an open and fair manner. He did not favour the suggestion for direct purchase as it was felt that this method is non-transparent and thus has potential of embroiling the EBP Programme in controversy. Shri Deora opines this could adversely affect the implementation of EBP Programme hence not advisable to follow.

Deora has further directed the OMCs to put out a clear tender in the market. OMCs have been given the complete commercial freedom to protect their commercial interests in arriving at workable ethanol pricing to take forward this important programme of blending 5 per cent ethanol with petrol, said an official release issued here today.

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