The Indian government has brought forward the adoption of E20 fuel, which is a blend of 20% ethanol with gasoline (petrol), for vehicular use from 2025 to 2023. The authorities aim to reduce the country’s dependence on oil imports, as India imported more than a fifth of its oil product consumption in 2020. In addition, advancing the deadline would allow sugar mills to convert excess sugarcane or sugar for producing higher quantity of ethanol required for blending, as India will not be able to extend financial help for marketing and transport of excess sugar beyond 2023 as per WTO conditions.
The national biofuel policy has set a 10% target for ethanol blending in gasoline by 2022 and 20% by 2030, which are far from being achieved (7.2% for 2020), and a 5% target for biodiesel blend by 2030. At the end of 2020, the government proposed to advance the 2030 target for ethanol blending to 2025.