India to ban biodiesel feedstock imports

12 September 2008 18:27 [Source: ICIS news]

NEW DELHI (ICIS news)--India will not allow import of free fatty acid (FFA) containing base oils such as palm oil under its national biofuels policy (NBP), a government release said on Friday.

Under the NBP approved yesterday by Indian cabinet, “the focus would be on indigenous production of biodiesel feedstock”, it added.

Biodiesel would be produced from non-edible oil seeds grown on waste, degraded or marginal land, it said. Plantation of such crops would not be encouraged on fertile, irrigated lands.

The government would notify producers of a minimum support price (MSP) for non-edible oil seeds to encourage growers to undertake plantations. MSP implies Government’s commitment to buy oilseeds as MSP in case the industry does not procure at that price.

The government also intends to notify both bioethanol and biodiesel as “declared goods” under the Central Sales Tax Act to ensure their unrestricted movement across the country.

NBP envisages that neither the government nor any state Government should levy any tax on bi-diesel. The policy has a fixed indicative target of blending petrol and diesel with 20% ethanol and 20% biodiesel respectively by 2017.

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By: Naresh Minocha
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