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Bengal

State to provide a set of incentives to ethanol manufacturing units

Kolkata: Following up its progressive approach to make Bengal a preferred destination for ethanol manufacturing units, the state government has now decided to provide a set of financial incentives, including a waiver on electricity duty, for five years to prospective investors.

An investor would now enjoy the benefit of the waiver of electricity duty for five years from the start of production at the unit.

At the same time, the state government has also decided to exempt stamp duty, registration fees besides waiving the fees for land records mutation and its conversion.

This comes when the state government has also decided to develop a dedicated park for ethanol-based units.

The parks would come up with ready infrastructure to ensure adequate supply of water, uninterrupted power supply and sewerage system. It would help immediate setting up of units.

The parks would be developed by the West Bengal Industrial Development Corporation (WBIDC) which is also the nodal agency for creating awareness on the ethanol industry and implementation of the set policy besides ensuring handholding support to the investors.

The state government has recently published the Ethanol Production Promotion Policy 2021 after the cabinet had given its nod on September 2 to introduce a policy to encourage investors in the ethanol sector in the state.

The move has been taken to ensure the creation of more investment and employment opportunities. It needs a mention that after introducing the new Ethanol Production Promotion Policy 2021, the state government has already received 15 proposals to set up ethanol manufacturing units that would lead to an investment of Rs 2,666 crore and create 4,000 employment opportunities.

It needs mention that Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee has also stated that the present focus of her government is to make Bengal number one in industries and commerce.

According to a senior officer, the financial incentives including waiver of electricity duty for five years would encourage investors to set up units in Bengal that would also make the state self-dependent in the production of ethanol.

It needs to be mentioned that the electricity duty in Bengal ranges from 2.5 to 15 per cent in the state.

Thus waiving the electricity duty would heavily benefit the investors.

The Central government has notified the National Policy on Biofuels under the Ethanol Blended Petrol (EBP) programme with an indicative target of 20 per cent blending of ethanol in petrol by 2025. At present the 426 crore litres of ethanol is derived from molasses-based distilleries and 258 crore litres from grain-based distilleries. An expansion to 760 litres and 740 litres respectively has also been proposed. This comes when there is a requirement of 1016 crore litres of ethanol for EBP.

The Bengal government has taken the move to promote ethanol production units in the state as it tops in rice production (15569.7 thousand tonnes in 2019-20) and the broken rice would be utilised as raw material for ethanol production in the state that needs to import 25 per cent of the ethanol required in the state though there are already three existing refineries.

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