UP sugar mills ask for easy ethanol transit

These want simpler procedure for permits by the excise dept

The private sugar mills in Uttar Pradesh have demanded for a simpler permit/licence mechanism for easy movement of ethanol to oil marketing companies' (OMCs) depots for blending.

The millers want simpler procedure for the grant of such permits/licences by the excise department and they have already written two letters to the state government.

The Centre had mandated five per cent ethanol blending with petrol, for which the OMCs had floated tenders in January 2013.

Uttar Pradesh is the largest manufacturer and supplier of ethanol in the counntry and has offered to supply 330 million litres of it. This is about 60 per cent of the total quantity of 550 million litres of ethanol offered to OMCs.

According to the millers, the OMCs are "keen to procure maximum quantity from UP" and had applied to the excise department seeking increase in the annual quota allocated to their depots.

However, while processing such applications, the department has been raising objections by considering the quantity of ethanol lifted by the concerned depot in the past few years.

Such objections had been causing delays of several weeks in the processing of applications, the millers alleged. "Such objections only delay (sic) the procedure, which in turn jeopardises the programme" they said.

They demanded only the requirement of ethanol for a depot should be considered, instead of lifting of ethanol for the purpose of increase in annual quota.

Meanwhile, the mills have yet not cleared their sugarcane dues pertaining to 2012-13 crushing season, which stands at approximately Rs 3,600 crore, which includes over Rs 3,400 crore arrears on private units. The remaining arrears are on cooperative mills.

The 121 mills, including 23 cooperative and 98 private mills, had collectively produced nearly 7.47 million tonnes (MT) of sugar - 7 per cent higher compared to last year's sugar output of 6.97 MT.