The Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas celebrated ‘World Bio Fuel Day’ on Monday with Minister Dharmendra Pradhan announcing the availability of high-speed diesel (HSD) blended with bio-diesel at select outlets around the country.
This is the first time in India that biofuel-blended diesel will be sold in retail outlets.
“Diesel was first used 122 years ago in 1893, and today we are announcing that bio-diesel will be available in the market,” Mr. Pradhan said at the event in Delhi.
Earlier in the day, he launched the sale of bio-diesel blended HSD at one of HPCL’s outlets in Delhi. During the event, Mr. Pradhan did the same for three other PSU outlets — one each in Vishakhapatnam, Vijayawada and Haldia.
“This will spread to other centres as well. The plan is to increase the quantity that will be made available,” Mr. Pradhan said. However, he also added that, currently, the supply of bio-diesel fell far short of the requirement.
“If, at the moment, we blend each litre of diesel with 5 per cent of bio-diesel, then we would need 3.5 million tonnes of bio-diesel per year. The current capacity is of 1 million tonnes,” he said.
Recently, the Ministry had permitted the sale of bio-diesel to bulk consumers such as the Railways, shipping and road transport corporations. “Bio-diesel can be made through a lot of biomass material. Currently, most of this material is considered waste by farmers,” Mr. Pradhan said.
The great advantage of using bio-diesel is that it not only reduces carbon emissions, but also provides farmers with an additional source of income by making their waste biomass into something marketable. “This has the potential to be a game-changer for farmers and for the supply of bio-diesel in the country,” he said.
Mr. Pradhan said there was no decision yet on whether bio-diesel would be included in the proposed Goods and Services Tax. “But we are in talks with States to come up with a uniform tax regime on bio-diesel, a single band in which all States tax the fuel,” he said. He also added that the Ministry had given tenders to companies for the supply of bio-diesel.