Indian petroleum minister M Veerappa Moily has urged oil producers to call in bids to cater to the remaining quantities of ethanol required to blend with petroleum.
The fuel producers are said to have procured less than half of 1 billion liters of required ethanol. The federal government has mandated 5% ethanol doping in the fuel under the Ethanol-Blended Programme (EBP).
Moily has advised fuel retailers to use the ethanol in place, besides launching new tenders for additional quanitity, reported moneycontrol.com.
The directions were given during a meeting between chairmen and directors in-charge of marketing at the three fuel retailers and Indian Sugar Manufacturers Association (ISMA). The meeting was called to accelerate the process of delivering ethanol for the EBP program as per the decision taken by Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA).
"To meet the balance requirement, OMCs are planning to float another tender in the month of July 2013 for procurement of ethanol," said the statement.