PRESS
Govt working to cut down ethanol prices for flex vehicles - Gadkari
This story was originally published at 09:20 IST on 31 January 2025
Register to read our real-time news.Informist, Friday, Jan. 31, 2025
NEW DELHI – The government is working on a plan to drastically bring down retail prices of ethanol for flex fuel vehicles to promote green mobility, The Financial Express reported on Friday, quoting Transport Minister Nitin Gadkari. The government buys ethanol at INR 60-INR 65 per litre from mills, but sells ethanol at normal petrol rates in the retail market. Flex fuel engines can run on 100% ethanol and need not be mixed with any other fuel.
"The Indian Oil Corp. decided to set up 400 ethanol pumps. They kept the ethanol price at INR 110 a litre. There was no difference with petrol price," the report quoted Gadkari, as saying at the Sugar-Ethanol and Bio-Energy India conference. "I have said that ethanol as fuel should be sold in retail around prices which the government pays for use in blending with petrol and diesel."
According to Gadkari, the government should only make a reasonable profit of INR 4-INR 5 a litre. Oil marketing companies buy ethanol from sugar mills for blending with petrol.
A meeting will be held after the Assembly elections in Delhi with the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas and other stakeholders to discuss ways to reduce the retail cost of ethanol for vehicles, the report quoted Gadkari. The minister said nine companies, including Tata, Mahindra, Hyundai, Toyota, Suzuki have made cars, and Hero, TVS, Bajaj, Honda and many others have made two-wheelers that can run on 100% bio-ethanol, the report said.
According to Gadkari, companies that produce ethanol should be given licence to operate 5-6 ethanol pumps in the areas they operate without furnishing any bank guarantee which traditional fuel pumps have to submit. Traditional fuel pumps have to submit a bank guarantee of INR 200 million which many sugar mills could not afford, the report quoted Gadkari as saying. nd
Compiled by Afra Abubacker
Filed by Tanima Banerjee
For users of real-time market data terminals, Informist news is available exclusively on the NSE Cogencis WorkStation.
Cogencis news is now Informist news. This follows the acquisition of Cogencis Information Services Ltd by NSE Data & Analytics Ltd, a 100% subsidiary of the National Stock Exchange of India Ltd. As a part of the transaction, the news department of Cogencis has been sold to Informist Media Pvt Ltd.
Informist Media Tel +91 (22) 6985-4000 /+91 (11) 4220-1000
Send comments to feedback@informistmedia.com
© Informist Media Pvt. Ltd. 2025. All rights reserved.
To read more please subscribe
Share this Story:
