The current Ethanol production capacity for Ethanol blending with petrol and other uses is about 947 crore litres, says Union Minister of State for Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution, Sadhvi Niranjan Jyoti in a written reply to a question in Lok Sabha. 

This includes 619 crore litres of molasses based production capacity and 328 crore litres of grain based production capacity, says Sadhvi Niranjan Jyoti.

The Government of India has been implementing Ethanol Blended Petrol (EBP) Programme throughout the country wherein Oil Marketing Companies (OMCs) sell petrol blended with Ethanol. Under the EBP Programme, the government has fixed the target of 10% and 20% blending of ethanol with petrol by 2022 and 2025 respectively.

The Central Government has taken various steps to increase production and utilization of Ethanol which are enumerated as under: In order to augment ethanol production capacity in the country, the government has notified Ethanol Interest Subvention Scheme(s) inter-alia extending financial assistance in the form of interest subvention @6% per annum or 50% of rate of interest charged by banks/financial institutions whichever is lower for five years including one year moratorium

The National Policy on Biofuels-2018, allowed the production of Ethanol from a variety of feedstocks like agricultural residues (rice straw, cotton stalk, corn cobs, saw dust, bagasse etc.); starch containing materials such as maize, cassava, rotten potatoes etc.; damaged food grains like wheat, broken rice etc; and food grains like rice apart from sugarcane and other sugar containing materials (like sugar beet, sweet sorghum etc).

The government and OMCs have been fixing remunerative prices of Ethanol produced from different feedstocks for supply to OMCs.