Gandhinagar: With the aim of providing benefits to both ethanol manufacturing units and farmers, the Gujarat government will shortly announce ethanol production promotion policy, 2021. The state government is expected to announce a number of incentives to promote the policy.
The policy, which is expected to be announced before the forthcoming edition of Vibrant Gujarat Global Summit, aims to utilize, develop, and promote domestic feedstock of agri by-products with emphasis on maize for production of bio-ethanol, thereby increasingly substituting fossil fuels. “The goal of the policy is to enable availability of bio-ethanol in the market, thereby increasing its blending percentage to 20% in petrol by 2025 from the current blending rate of 7.93%,” says the policy document.
All farmers engaged in maize cultivation through traditional or hybridization method supplying the maize produce to ethanol manufacturing units will be eligible under the policy. Among the agri-products used as agri-input for ethanol production, maize comparatively needs less water, gives higher yield per hectare in a shorter period and can be grown in any season. With high starch content, maize has the potential as a grain feedstock for ethanol production. As much as 380 litres of ethanol can be produced from 1 metric tonne of maize.
The policy recognizes the need to provide incentives to eligible units in the ethanol manufacturing sector for the growth of this sunrise sector. The government will provide incentives to set up new distilleries to produce ethanol and to install any method approved by Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB).
Gujarat Agro Industries Corporation Limited (GAICL) shall be the nodal agency responsible for implementation of this policy in the State. GAICL will develop web-based interaction mechanism where suggestions and complaints can be directly addressed to it.
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Incentives
# Capital subsidy at 25% on eligible project cost (technical civil work and plant & machinery) subject to maximum of Rs 10 crore
# Interest subsidy at 7% on term loan for 5 years, subject to maximum of Rs 5 crore. It will be in addition to the assistance received under central government scheme
# 100% SGST and electricity duty reimbursement for a period of 5 years, upper limit being 100% of the project cost
# Eligible farmers will be entitled to an incentive of Rs 1,000 per metric tonne of maize sold to grain-based ethanol manufacturing units
The above news was originally posted on timesofindia.indiatimes.com
