ETHANOL PRICE

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LOK SABHA

Oil marketing companies procure ethanol through public tenders. As a part of tendering process, negotiations are carried out with the tenderers in order to get most competitive rates. The negotiated basic price of ethanol (excluding State levies) obtained against the public tenders is in the range of Rs. 17 to 17.50 per litre. The total requirement of ethanol in the notified 9 States and 4 UTs is 345 thousand kilo litre per annum and expenditure on annual procurement is about Rs. 280 crore.

As notified by the Government, all the areas of 9 major sugar producing States of Andhra Pradesh, Goa, Gujarat, Haryana, Karnataka, Maharashtra, Punjab, Tamil Nadu & Uttar Pradesh and 4 Union Territories of Chandigarh, Dadra & Nagar Haveli, Daman & Diu and Pondicherry will be covered with 5% ethanol-blended-petrol by 30.9.2003. The remaining States and UTs will be covered in the next phase.

The above information was given by the Minister of State for Petroleum & Natural Gas, Smt. Sumitra Mahajan, today in the Lok Sabha in a written reply.