Govt may introduce methanol-blended fuel to cut India's annual oil import bill by Rs 5,000cr: Report

The government is considering introducing methanol-blended fuel across the country to trim the oil import bill and check the rising pollution levels, according to a report by The Economic Times.

If implemented, it could cut save the country nearly Rs 5,000 crore annually in oil imports, trim consumers' fuel bills by nearly 10 percent and slash vehicular pollution levels by over 30 percent.

Currently, the country uses a 10 percent ethanol-blended fuel. But, ethanol production at Rs 42 a litre is almost double that of methanol at Rs 20 a litre.

Having helmed the methanol economy project right from the time of its inception, NITI Aayog member VK Saraswat told the paper that the M15 blend of the fuel (15 percent methanol and 85 percent petrol) has been successfully tested in a 65,000 km trial run. He said the trial revealed that no changes are needed in the vehicles in order to operate on methanol-blended fuels.

A projected annual reduction of $100 billion in crude oil imports by 2030 was estimated by the NITI Aayog, provided India switches over to the use of the M15 blend of fuel, both in transportation and cooking, the ET report added.

Being the third-largest importer of oil in the world, India's crude oil imports are worth around Rs 5 lakh crore a year.