Naik seeks Maharashtra's help for ethanol tax waivers

parli-vaijnath: union petroleum and natural gas minister ram naik has sought the maharashtra government''s support for waiver of various taxes and fees levied on sugar co-operatives in the state who plan to generate ethanol, an alternative fuel from sugarcane juice. "ethanol is the fuel of future. if the state government waives its turnover tax on anhydrous ethanol, permit fee and import fee, then benefits emerging from the production deals will be on passed to the farmers," he said after laying the foundation stone for former state deputy chief minister gopinath munde''s ethonol distillery here on saturday. naik said the centre had already commenced talks with the uttar pradesh government for an excise and sales tax relief for ethanol producers. he said in order to facilitate easy inter-state movement of ethanol, the ministry was seeking help from maharashtra government for issuance of yearly permits to oil companies or anhydrous ethanol suppliers for bulk quantities, to be renewed a month before expiry. the waivers sought by centre from state government are removal of three per cent state octroi, rs 300 per kl service charges, rs 1,500 per kl import fee, rs 500 per kl permit fee, sales tax of four per cent and its 10 per cent surcharge. india''s requirement for ethanol was 500 million litres per annum out of which maharashtra consumes 70 million litres, naik said. other than the three pilot projects initiated last year, the government has decided to involve private participation in the production and supply of the fuel and also set up a sugar development fund which would provide monetary assistance to interested parties, especially sugar co-operatives, he added. "after the success of the three projects, we have initiated new pilot projects with a blend of ethanol and gasoline in up, punjab and andhra pradesh. the requirement of these states is to the tune of 1,340 kl per month," naik said. the minister also declared an additional payment of rs 25 per tonne to farmers who will supply sugar cane for production of ethanol. in his speech, munde who is also chairman of viadyanath sahakari sakhar karkhana ltd, announced that in the next season his co-operative will give around rs 900 per tonne to the sons of the soil as the fctory would produce ethanol along with refined sugar as well. meanwhile, in pune, naik on sunday asked the maharashtra government to reverse the hike in sales tax on petrol and diesel with immediate effect, failing which the centre would impose cut in subsidy given to the state. addressing reporters, he said the state government''s decision to raise sales tax on petroleum product was against the policy adopted by the central government. after the decontrol of petroleum sector, the consumer was entitled to get the benefits of price decrease in accordance with international prices, the minister said. subsidy on kerosene and cooking gas (lpg) will be completely abolished in the year 2004, as promised, he said adding that due to demand by some political parties in the national democratic alliance (nda), the subsidy on both the items were continued this year at 33 and 34 per cent respectively. he expressed hope that once subsidy on the petroleum products were over, the prices of petrol and diesel will further come down. replying to a question, naik clarified that no foreign company till date had aplied for petrol dispensing centres in india.