With a view to increase production of ethanol, the Central Government is providing soft loans up to 40% of the project cost to the sugar mills from Sugar Development Fund (SDF) for setting up ethanol projects, as per information provided by Minister of State for Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution, Raosaheb Patil Danve.
Under Ethanol Blended Petrol (EBP) programme, the Central Government has already decided 5% blending at all India level, which can go up to 10% in a state.
The production of alcohol or ethanol is linked to the production of molasses which is a by-product during production of sugar.