New Delhi: Petroleum Minister Dharmendra Pradhan on Wednesday announced in the Rajya Sabha that the government has set a target of adding at least 20 per cent ethanol in petrol by 2025 and serious efforts in this direction have already been initiated.
Answering a supplementary question during Question Hour, Mr Pradhan said that earlier the government had set 2030 as the target date for carrying out this objective, but now they have decided to pre-pone this to 2025.
To achieve this objective, the government is making all out effort. He further said that earlier the use of ethanol was not taken very seriously which led to a substantial increase in the import of crude oil into the country. The government is making serious efforts to consistently increase the volume of mix of ethanol with petrol. In the year 2014 only 0.67 per cent of ethanol was being added.
Mr Pradhan said that once the amount of ethanol being mixed with petrol increases it will automatically lead to a fall in the import of crude oil and also help provide employment to local people. This will also help increase the production of sugarcane in the country and farmers incomes as well. He also said that efforts are being made to extract ethanol from rice and corn and exuded confidence that in the coming days their efforts in this direction will yield positive results.
Fuel prices remain steady for 17th day straight
Petrol and diesel prices remained steady for the 17th straight day at their record highs across the country on Tuesday.
Petrol price in Delhi stands at Rs 91.17 per litre while diesel is available for Rs 81.47. In Mumbai, petrol is retailing at Rs 97.57, while diesel costs Rs 88.60, data available on Indian Oil Corporation’s website showed.
There has not been any revision in auto fuel prices so far in March and prices were last changed on February 27, 2021, with petrol being hiked by 24 paise per litre and diesel being raised by 15 paise in the national capital.
The price of petrol had last month breached the Rs 100-mark in two places in Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh, which levy the highest VAT on the fuel in the country. In these two cities, the key auto fuel remained steady at Rs 101.84 in Rajasthan’s Sri Ganganagar, while diesel was available at Rs 93.77 per litre. In Madhya Pradesh’s Anuppur, petrol costs Rs 101.59 per litre and diesel is selling for Rs 91.97.
Generally, the fuel prices get revised on a daily basis in line with benchmark international price and foreign exchange rates.
In the global market, crude oil prices rose on Thursday as vaccine rollouts bolstered the economic outlook and US fuel stocks fell sharply, although gains were capped by a surge in crude oil inventories after last month’s Texas storm, Reuters reported earlier in the day.
Brent crude oil futures for May rose 40 cents (0.6 per cent) to $68.30 a barrel by 0105 GMT, while US West Texas Intermediate crude for April was up 48 cents (0.7 per cent) at $64.92, the report said.(UNI)
