India shelves ethanol plans
No great surprises here, faced with the prospect of dipping into their coffers and offering subsidies to ethanol producers to set up shop in India thereby doing their bit for the environment. Or saying bollox to that we're not going to pay for something that isn't economically viable just to make us feel good, the Indian government have given the environment the elbow....
Due to lack of political will and clarity in government policies, ethanol-blending has not only failed to pick up in India but also lost out on foreign participation in the sector.
A couple of Japanese companies that had earlier shown interest in setting up fuel-grade ethanol manufacturing plants in India have shelved their plans as they don't see potential in the country.
Pramod Chaudhari, the chairman of biofuels technology major Praj Industries Ltd, said, "Earlier, a few Japanese companies such as Mitsui and Mitsubishi had approached us to source technology and equipment for setting up fuel-grade ethanol plants in India. They have shortage of land in their country so they wanted to put up plants here and export ethanol to Japan."
They might have cancelled their plans, Chaudhari said.
He said that in 2003, the government had put forth a policy to incentivise fuel-grade ethanol manufacturing by offering subsidies to oil marketing companies on every litre of ethanol-blended petrol sold in the market. However, the policy was scrapped in 2004 and no further steps were taken to promote the sector.
Since then, the sector is floundering. "There are some states that promote ethanol-blending but many are still dragging their feet on the issue," Chaudhari said.
Due to lack of political will and clarity in government policies, ethanol-blending has not only failed to pick up in India but also lost out on foreign participation in the sector.
A couple of Japanese companies that had earlier shown interest in setting up fuel-grade ethanol manufacturing plants in India have shelved their plans as they don't see potential in the country.
Pramod Chaudhari, the chairman of biofuels technology major Praj Industries Ltd, said, "Earlier, a few Japanese companies such as Mitsui and Mitsubishi had approached us to source technology and equipment for setting up fuel-grade ethanol plants in India. They have shortage of land in their country so they wanted to put up plants here and export ethanol to Japan."
They might have cancelled their plans, Chaudhari said.
He said that in 2003, the government had put forth a policy to incentivise fuel-grade ethanol manufacturing by offering subsidies to oil marketing companies on every litre of ethanol-blended petrol sold in the market. However, the policy was scrapped in 2004 and no further steps were taken to promote the sector.
Since then, the sector is floundering. "There are some states that promote ethanol-blending but many are still dragging their feet on the issue," Chaudhari said.
