The Hindu Business Line : 10% ethanol-doped fuel: BIS norms likely by March

Blending tactics: The Union Agriculture Minister, Mr Sharad Pawar, flanked by Mr Rama Babu (left), President, ISMA, and Mr Ranjit Puri, Vice-President, at the 73rd annual general meeting of the Indian Sugar Mills Association, in the Capital on Friday.

Our Bureau

New Delhi, Dec. 21

The Bureau of Indian Standards’ (BIS) specification for 10 per cent ethanol-doped petrol will be ready by March 2008. This will pave the way for mandatory blending of ethanol up to 10 per cent in petrol (against the current five per cent level) from the 2008-09 sugar season, beginning October.

Working on ‘specifications’

“Let me inform you that the Department of Consumer Affairs is already working on laying down the BIS specifications for 10 per cent ethanol-blended petrol and we expect to finalise the standards by March 2008”, the Union Food and Agriculture Minister, Mr Sharad Pawar, said while addressing the 73rd annual general meeting of the Indian Sugar Mills Association (ISMA) here on Friday.

He was responding to concerns raised by the ISMA President, Mr P. Rama Babu, that the Centre’s decision to double the mandatory level of blending from October would not be effective in the absence of timely amendment to the existing BIS standard for ethanol-doped petrol.

Ethanol blending programme

Mr Rama Babu also complained about the lack of seriousness among the public sector oil marketing companies in taking up the ethanol blending programme. Following the announcement of mandatory five per cent per cent blending across the country from October 2007, the oil companies had issued tenders and contracted ethanol of 1,650 million litres for the three years ending March 2009.

“However, the ground reality is that the actual lifting so far is only about 220 million litres as against the doping requirement of 550 million litres for the first year which is already over”, he noted.

Oil cos concern

Mr Pawar, on his part, felt that there was a need to address the apprehensions of the oil companies that the sugar industry would be reluctant to supply ethanol in years of cane shortage.

“With increased confidence in the capability of the sugar industry to meet the demand for ethanol over a longer period of 3-4 years, the country could move forward to increase the blending percentage further from 10 per cent”, he said.

To enable this, the Centre has, in fact, decided to allow mills to convert sugarcane juice or B-heavy molasses directly into ethanol.

“A notification is this regard is likely to be issued within a month”, Mr Pawar added.

The Minister rejected ISMA’s plea to increase the minimum radial distance between an existing and a proposed new mill from the current 15 km to at least 25 km.

On New mills location

“We carefully considered this suggestion while amending the Sugarcane (Control) Order, 1966 in November 2006 and found that 15 km distance is sufficient to support a sugar factory of 5,000 TCD.

“We are of the view that the cane requirement for higher crushing should be met by mills by increasing the productivity of sugarcane in their respective areas”, Mr Pawar said.

The farmers, too, were keen to have more factories in a given area so that they get a better price for their cane, he added.

On the industry’s demand for linking cane price to sugar realisations and restraining States from ‘advising’ prices over and above the Centre’s statutory minimum price (SMP), Mr Pawar pointed out that the Supreme Court had upheld the powers of State Governments in this regard.

“We held detailed discussions with the Ministers concerned of key producing States in October to discuss the matter.

“The response was positive but considering its sensitive nature, firm commitments and conclusive decisions could not be taken”, he admitted.

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