Representatives of the cooperative sugar industry, led by NCP chief Sharad Pawar, today met Finance Minister Arun Jaitley and demanded resumption of excise duty exemption on ethanol supplied to oil companies for blending with petrol.
In June 2015, sugar mills were exempted from excise duty of 12.36 per cent on ethanol produced in the 2015-16 season (October- September) and supplied to oil companies. But the duty exemption was withdraw on August 10.
"Pawarji and we from NFCSF met the Finance Minister. We discussed various issued concerning the sugar industry.
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"On priority, we have demanded that the government withdraw the August 10 notification on excise duty on ethanol," National Federation of Cooperative Sugar Factories (NFCSF) Managing Director Manohar Joshi told PTI after the meeting.
Sugar mills have supplied 75 crore litres of ethanol to oil companies as against 130 crore litres contracted in the 2015-16 season. "We have asked the government to provide excise duty exemption for the rest 55 crore litres of ethanol which will be supplied by December," he said.
In the meeting, NFCSF asked the government to restructure loans of all sugar mills in the country, he added.
NCFCSF President Dilip Walse Patil was also present at the meeting.
Sugar output in India, the world's second largest sugar producer after Brazil, is estimated to decline to 25 million tonnes in the 2015-16 season from 28.3 million tonnes in the previous year.
The outlook for the next year is not encouraging as sugar production is pegged lower at 23.26 million tonnes.
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