Centre under liquor lobby pressure to import ethanol:Ram Naik

Mumbai, Mar 27 (UNI) Former petroleum minister Ram Naik today alleged that the central government wants to import ethanol due to the pressure of the liquor lobby instead of encouraging its manufacture at home to benefit the farming community.

In a statement here, he claimed that the UPA govrnment reversed the policy of the previous NDA government which had made mixing of five per cent ethanol in petrol mandatory with the objective of reducing the burden of import of 76 per cent of petroleum products by the country. Also the NDA policy benefited the farmers as ethanol can be prepared from molasses, he added. But since this led to an increase in the price of molasses required by the liqour industry, Mr Naik alleged, the latter pressurised the UPA government into reversing the pro-farmer policy of the previous NDA reguime.

He said after NDA government's decision of mandatory mixing of ethanol in petrol to reduce the import bill of petroleum products, 125 factories in the country with an investment of Rs 500 crore started producing ethanol.

Stating that reversal of the NDA policy led to unemployment of workers in sugar factories, he appealed to Union Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar and Chief Minister Vilasrao Deshmukh to take up the issue with the Central government to restore the previous policy in the larger benefit of sugarcane growers and reduce the outflow of foreign exchange on import of raw petroleum products.

UNI