The Union Minister of Petroleum & Natural Gas Marpadi Veerappa Moily informed the Lok Sabha in a written reply recently that the government has further decided on last July 3 that Oil Marketing Companies (OMCs) will procure ethanol from domestic sources to achieve the mandatory requirement of 5 per cent ethanol blending with petrol by October, 2013 in areas/parts of the country where sufficient quantity of ethanol is available.    

The Government has launched Ethanol Blended Petrol (EBP) Programme with effect from November 1st, 2006 in the entire country except the North Eastern states, Jammu & Kashmir, Andaman & Nicobar Islands and Lakshadweep.    

In other parts of the country, blending of ethanol may be increased progressively depending upon the availability of ethanol to reach the 5 per cent mandatory level. OMCs have been directed to implement the programme accordingly. OMCs have now floated a fresh domestic tender on last July 22 for a quantity of 133 crore litres of ethanol for blending with petrol for additional quantities for the period December 2013 to November 2014.    

Moily emphasised that the Government had decided on November 22, in 2012 that procurement price of ethanol will henceforth be decided between Oil Marketing Companies (OMCs) and suppliers of ethanol.