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Union Minister of Petroleum and Natural Gas, Hardeep Singh Puri, inaugurated the 'Ethanol Pavilion' at the Auto Expo here, and said the ethanol blending in petrol was increased up to 10.17 per cent in 2022.

The Maruti Suzuki and Toyota Kirloskar Motor, TVS, Hero MotoCorp, Bajaj Auto, Honda Motorcycle, Yamaha and Suzuki motorcycles are displaying their working prototype of flex-fuel vehicles at the pavilion and these vehicles can take a range of ethanol blends varying from 20-85 per cent.

A memorandum of understanding between the US Grains Council and Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers for the clean energy partnership was also signed.

During the symposium at the Motor Show, Puri said that there has been an increase of the ethanol blending in petrol from 1.53 per cent in 2013-14 to 10.17 per cent in 2022, which was well ahead of November 2022 deadline and advanced its target to achieve 20 per cent ethanol blending in petrol from 2030 to 2025-26.

"This has resulted not only augmenting the country's energy security but also translated into a forex savings of over Rs 41,500 crore, reduced GHG emissions of 27 lakh MT and has benefitted farmers with expeditious payment of over Rs 40,600 crore made to the farmers," said Puri.

"We have reduced the security deposit amount from 5 per cent to 1 per cent extending a benefit of around Rs 400 crore to ethanol suppliers for Ease of Doing Business. Also we have reduced the GST on Bio-fuel from 18 per cent to 5 per cent," Puri said.

"The government is also setting up five 2G ethanol bio-refineries in the country at Panipat (Parali) in Haryana, Bathinda in Punjab, Bargarh (Parali) in Odisha, Numaligarh (Bamboo) in Assam and Devangere in Karnataka," said the union minister.

"We have a target to install Alternate Fuel Stations (EV charging) at 22,000 retail outlets by May 2024. We are also launching a Global Alliance on Biofuels, along with the US and Brazil during India's Presidency of G20," said Puri.

The Minister of Petroleum and Natural Gas further said that the government is also investing Rs 19,744 crore into the National Green Hydrogen Mission for developing green hydrogen production capacity of 5 MMT (Million Metric Tons) per annum.

"I am hopeful that today's event will showcase tremendous potential & supportive Government policies for sustainable growth in the sector. It will also provide a platform for domestic and international investors and other stakeholders. I am sure that the automobile companies will be working in synergy with all the stakeholders in the energy ecosystem to ensure a smooth transition to the alternate fuels," said Puri.

Puri also invited the stakeholders to attend the India Energy Week (IEW) being held from February 6 to 8 at the Bangalore International Exhibition Center (BIEC), Bengaluru.

The first edition of IEW is themed on 'Growth, Collaboration and Transition' and is expected to feature more than 30 energy Ministers, 50+ CEOs of global companies, 650 exhibitors and 30000+ attendees.