The ministry of petroleum and natural gas is formulating a mechanism to address the issue of excess ethanol capacity with the sugar and food grain processing industry, in consultation with the ministry of food.

The options include easing export of ethanol and laying a road map for increasing the share of biofuel blended with petrol.

At present, oil marketing companies procure 11,000 million litres of ethanol made from sugarcane, rice and maize annually for 20% blending with petrol while the existing manufacturing capacity is of around 17,000 million litres.

“Excess capacities in ethanol manufacturing can be dealt through exploring the possibility of........

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