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"The sugar industry is very happy and welcomes the decision of the government to give its approval for procurement of bio-ethanol by oil-marketing companies (OMC's)," the National Federation of Cooperative Sugar Factories said in a statement.
Yesterday, the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs had approved the pricing for bio-ethanol procurement by OMCs for Ethanol Blended Petrol (EBP) Programme. The CCEA said that the procurement price of ethanol would be decided henceforth between OMCs and suppliers of ethanol.
The five per cent mandatory ethanol blending with petrol would be implemented across the country, for which the Ministry of Petroleum & Natural Gas will immediately issue a gazette notification.
"This was a very long and pending demand of the sugar industry to implement this eco-friendly measure. It will benefit the sugarcane farmers immensely as it will open another avenue of income for the sugar industry which they will share with their farmers," NFCSF said.
The association also welcomed the government's decision to allocate sugar quota for open market sale for the next four month (December-March) from the earlier practice of quarterly release.
"This will give mills more flexibility in planning the cash flow and sales," NFCSF said, and hoped that the Centre would accept the recommendation made by the Rangarajan panel on the decontrol of the sugar industry at the earliest.
