3 min readJul 8, 2026 06:00 AM IST First published on: Jul 8, 2026 at 06:00 AM ISTThe Centre is apparently going slow on implementing ethanol blending in petrol beyond the current 20 per cent. The rethink, as reported by this newspaper, comes even as the Finance Ministry, only last month, exempted petrol containing 22, 25, 27 and 30 per cent ethanol from excise duty after the Bureau of Indian Standards had issued specifications for these higher blends. The move to not hurry the transition to 20 per cent-plus blends makes sense. The all-India average ethanol-petrol blending ratio rose from 5 to 10 per cent between 2019-20 and 2021-22. It has since further doubled to 20 per cent, with this blend (E20) being made mandatory for all petrol sold from April 2026. Given how fast it has happened — well before the originally planned 2030 deadline — a pause isn’t a bad thing from a policy or practical standpoint.The pause period should be used by the government to address genuine concerns of motorists. The first has to do with lower mileage because of ethanol’s calorific value being 30-35 per cent less compared to that of pure petrol. The second is on account of ethanol’s hygroscopic (moisture-absorbing) property, which can lead to corrosion of steel fuel tanks and internal metal components. As it is, only vehicles sold in India after April 2023 have full material compatibility with E20. Handling fuel with ethanol blends may require major overhaul of internal combustion engines and auto parts to resist any potential ethanol-related degradation. Not surprisingly, it’s the older car and two-wheeler owners who are feeling short-changed; reduced mileage and wearing of engine parts from ethanol is something they were not told about at the time of purchase before April 2023. All the more reason for transparent communication before embarking on E25 or E30. The government can even consider fiscal measures that would make the higher ethanol-blended fuels cheaper than E20, which will make consumers more receptive to them.AdvertisementThat said, the focus on biofuels and electrification of transport must continue. The risks of 90 per cent crude petroleum import dependency are too high — and the Iran war will not be the last of the global oil supply shocks. India needs a clear, calibrated and forward-looking roadmap for higher ethanol blends that avoid the abruptness of the earlier rollouts. Equally important is the feedstock for producing ethanol. It’s certainly not desirable to make ethanol from water-guzzling rice. More effort is required to promote sweet sorghum, bajra and other millets as sustainable feedstocks, with breeding of varieties/hybrids with higher starch content and fermentation efficiencies comparable to maize or sugarcane.