New Delhi: On the occasion of World Environment Day, the Prime Minister, Narendra Modi gave a great message to the nation at a program on ‘Save Soil’ held at Vigyan Bhawan in the capital today. In fact, amid rising petrol and diesel prices, the country’s oil companies have achieved their target of 10 percent ethanol petrol blending. During the program, Prime Minister Modi said that the country had achieved this goal five months ago. Let me tell you that due to ethanol petrol blending, the country’s farmers, as well as carbon emissions, are coming down drastically.
In May, Union Petroleum Minister Hardeep Singh Puri had said that the level of ethanol bleaching in petrol in India had reached 9.99 percent. Importantly, India had set a target of 10 percent ethanol blend in petrol by 2022 and 20 percent blend by 2030. In addition, the central government has set a target of mixing 5% of bio-diesel with diesel by 2030. Accordingly, the oil companies have already achieved the target of 10 percent about five months ago. Ethanol petrol bleaching has also saved the country’s foreign exchange.
The ethanol blending program in petrol aims to reduce the country’s dependence on crude oil imports, reduce carbon emissions and increase farmers’ incomes. The Center has announced an additional charge of Rs 2 per liter on blended fuels from October to promote blending. In May, Union Petroleum Minister Hardeep Puri had said that the target of 9.99 percent ethanol blending in petrol has been achieved by the country’s oil marketing companies. “India is ready to achieve 20% blending of ethanol petrol bleed by 2025-2026,” claimed Puri.