Cabinet okays Rs 15,500-cr loan for sugar mills to boost ethanol capacity
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.
