India has saved foreign exchange outgo worth around Rs 9,580 crore in the last one year owing to the use of ethanol-blended petrol (EBP) in transport.

Under the EBP programme, public sector Oil Marketing Companies (OMCs) are selling E10 (10 per cent ethanol blended petrol) as per availability.

For the ongoing Ethanol Supply Year (ESY) 2020-21, public sector OMCs - Indian Oil, BPCL And HPCL - sold 3,672.46 crore litre of ethanol blended petrol between 1 December 2020 and 14 November 2021, the Parliament was told on Monday (29 November).

"The foreign exchange impact is a factor of average Free-on-Board rate of petrol and USD/INR exchange rate. During the period 1 December 2020 to 14 November 2021, the notional foreign exchange impact is estimated to be around Rs 9,580 crore," Minister of State for Petroleum and Natural Gas Rameswar Teli said in a written reply to a question in Rajya Sabha.

The minister further said that a joint study, conducted by IOCL along with ARAI and SIAM, indicated that use of E10 petrol cuts hydrocarbon and carbon monoxide emissions by 20 per cent in both two-wheelers and passenger cars while the use of E20 petrol cuts Carbon Mono-oxide emissions by 50 per cent in two-wheelers and 30 per cent in four-wheelers.

The present alcohol or ethanol distillation capacity in the country is around 722 crore litre per annum which has to be increased to estimated 1,500 crore litres per annum to meet the requirement of 20 per cent ethanol blending under the EBP Programme and requirement of other sectors, according to the Department of Food and Public Distribution.