To boost ethanol capacity in sugar mills, the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA) on Thursday cleared an extra soft loan of Rs 15,500 crore under a recently launched scheme. The government will bear an expenditure of Rs 3,355 crore as interest subvention for this.
This includes a soft loan of Rs 2,600 crore which will be provided to molasses-based standalone distilleries to augment capacity and set up new units.
In June 2018, the government announced a soft loan of Rs 4,400 crore and provided an interest subvention of Rs 1,332 crore to mills over five years, including a moratorium period of one year, to augment ethanol output.
So far, the food ministry has approved 114 applications for a loan amount of Rs 6,000 crore although applications received were for over Rs 13,400 crore worth of soft loans.
