Indian Government Invites Ethanol Distillery Proposals and offers Soft Loans
The Indian Government has opened a six-month window starting 21st April 2022 for receiving proposals from ethanol producers so they can avail loans at subsidised interest rates for the development of ethanol-producing distilleries. Even those ethanol producers who have already received land for this purpose need to file fresh proposals in this window.
Ethanol producers, including sugar mills, have been encouraged to set up new distilleries or expand their existing distilleries by offering a reduction in interest rates of 6% per annum or half the interest rate on the loan offered by banks, whichever is lower, for developing their distilleries. Additionally, a one-year moratorium period shall be included for repayment in the loan term of 5 years.
Since 2018, the Government has been implementing a scheme to offer loans to sugar mills and distilleries to encourage the production of ethanol, which will be blended with petrol and used as a blended fuel.
The Indian Government further stated “Ethanol production capacities are required to be enhanced to about 1700 crore litre to achieve 20 per cent blending by 2025. Opening of this window would help in augmentation of ethanol production capacities”.
