Govt succeeds in promoting biofuels as alternative to petroleum products: Union Minister Hardeep Puri

 
 
Petroleum and Natural Gas Minister Hardeep Puri today said government has achieved remarkable progress in promoting biofuels as a sustainable alternative to petroleum products. In a written reply in Lok Sabha today, Mr Puri said the promotion of use of biofuels has been undertaken through the National Policy on Biofuels. Government has been promoting the blending of ethanol in petrol under the Ethanol Blended Petrol, EBP Programme with multiple objectives. The Minister said the EBP Programme has resulted in expeditious payment to farmers of more than 1 lakh 25 thousand crores from Ethanol Supply Year 2014-15 up to July this year, besides savings of more than 1 lakh 44 thousand crores of foreign exchange. Under the EBP Programme, Public Sector Oil Marketing Companies achieved the target of 10 percent Ethanol blending in petrol in June 2022, five months ahead of target. The blending levels further increased to 12.06 percent in 2022-23, 14.60 percent in 2023-24, and 19.05 percent as on 31st July this year. During July alone, Ethanol blending of 19.93 percent was achieved.