As the government scraps excise duty on high ethanol blended petrol, Atul Chaturvedi, executive director of Shree Renuka Sugars, has said that the industry is witnessing a feedstock challenge instead of a demand concern.
Flagging concerns over this year's monsoon conditions, Chaturvedi told NDTV Profit, "the challenge going forward will be more on the feedstock than demand side", adding that the uncertainty over sugarcane production due to El Nino.
He assured that the industry has enough capacity to produce E20 and even E30 fuels. For 20% blending, the industry requires 10 billion litres of ethanol and for 30% nearly 15 billion litres of ethanol is needed. "The capacity already available is in the country, including maize, rice and sugar, which is around 20 billion. So I don't see any reason why capacity expansion is required," said Chaturvedi.
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One of the leading producers of sugar in the country, Shree Renuka Sugars recently ramped up ethanol production capacities from 720 Kiloleters per day to 1250 Kilo Litres per day, according to the company's website. Speaking on exemption of excise duty, the executive director of Shree Renuka Sugars welcomed the "right step" by the government and said, "India is moving towards Atma Nirbharta."
The central government in a notification issued on Thursday exempted petrol blended with a higher concentration of ethanol from excise duty. The notifications set a nil rate of central excise duty, special additional excise duty, Road and Infrastructure Cess, and Agriculture Infrastructure and Development Cess on petrol blended with 22%, 25%, 27%, and 30% ethanol, respectively. The move also aligns with India's goal of targeting 30% ethanol blending in petrol as part of its energy transition roadmap.
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