The Indian gov­ern­ment may soon allow the sale of eth­anol already pro­duced from sug­ar­cane juice and B­heavy molasses (BHM) before it imposed a ban in Decem­ber last year with imme­di­ate effect. As the quant­ity of eth­anol lying with mills is equi­val­ent to 8 lakh tonnes (lt) of sugar, the total quant­ity of sugar diver­sion for the bio­fuel pro­duc­tion may reach 25 lt, includ­ing 17 lt already allowed for this sugar sea­son (Octo­ber­Septem­ber).

“There is no con­cern on sugar as already close to 300 lt has already been pro­duced, exclud­ing 17 lt diver­ted for eth­anol whereas total quant­ity may be 310315 lt. This looks com­fort­able as the annual sugar con­sump­tion in the coun­try is about 280­285 lt,” said an offi­cial source.

“There is no con­cern on sugar as already close to 300 lt has already been pro­duced, exclud­ing 17 lt diver­ted for eth­anol whereas total quant­ity may be 310315 lt. This looks com­fort­able as the annual sugar con­sump­tion in the coun­try is about 280­285 lt,” said an offi­cial source.

NO HARM IN ALLOWING

As the open­ing stock as on Octo­ber 1, 2023, was 57 lt, with 30 lt sur­plus from thisyear added to it, the clos­ing stock in 2023­24 sea­son may be around 85 lt.

Point­ing out that neither there is a con­cern on sugar avail­ab­il­ity nor those eth­anol already pro­duced could be of any other use, there is no harm now in allow­ing mills to sell those eth­anol, the source said. However, it may take some time, may be in June, to decide if mills are to allowed to pro­duce eth­anol from BHM, the source said.

Point­ing out that neither there is a con­cern on sugar avail­ab­il­ity nor those eth­anol already pro­duced could be of any other use, there is no harm now in allow­ing mills to sell those eth­anol, the source said. However, it may take some time, may be in June, to decide if mills are to allowed to pro­duce eth­anol from BHM, the source said.

The decision may also help oil mar­ket­ing com­pan­ies to add more quant­ity into blend­ing amid the eth­anol blend­ing with pet­rol (EBP) rate recor­ded at 11.87 per cent until March 31 in cur­rent eth­anol (Novem­ber­Octo­ber), whereas the tar­get is 15 per cent for the whole year.

Sugar mills and dis­til­ler­ies which have inves­ted heav­ily, as high as ₹150 bil­lion in last three years to increase eth­anol capa­city, may get a fil­lip as there was con­fu­sion after the gov­ern­ment’s overnight ban, industry offi­cials said.

Sugar mills and dis­til­ler­ies which have inves­ted heav­ily, as high as ₹150 bil­lion in last three years to increase eth­anol capa­city, may get a fil­lip as there was con­fu­sion after the gov­ern­ment’s overnight ban, industry offi­cials said.

Recently, the All India Sugar Traders Asso­ci­ation raised its sugar pro­duc­tion estim­ated this sea­son by 4 lt to 320 lt, but it will still be

Year lower than the 329 lt pro­duced last sea­son. Higher out­put in Maha­rashtra and Karnataka is likely to aid in rais­ing the pro­duc­tion fig­ures, though Uttar Pra­desh will likely report lower out­put.

Accord­ing to AISTA’s second estim­ates, sugar pro­duc­tion in Maha­rashtra is estim­ated to reach 108 lt against the 96 lt in the first estim­ates. But,Accord­ing to AISTA’s second estim­ates, sugar pro­duc­tion in Maha­rashtra is estim­ated to reach 108 lt against the 96 lt in the first estim­ates. But, the pro­duc­tion in Uttar Pra­desh is estim­ated to decline to 106 lt from 117 lt in the first estim­ates.