The Hindu : Tamil Nadu News : Promote biofuel programme, Jayalalithaa urges Manmohan

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Friday, Jul 16, 2004

Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu

Promote biofuel programme, Jayalalithaa urges Manmohan

By Our Special Correspondent

CHENNAI, JULY 15. The Chief Minister, Jayalalithaa, today urged the Prime Minister, Manmohan Singh, to announce a new package to promote the biofuel programme.

In a demi-official letter to him, she said: "The biofuel programme is indeed promising, providing a new strategy for the rapid development of the agriculture sector."

Ms. Jayalalithaa suggested full import duty exemption for imports of technology and capital goods relating to biofuel projects. She also wanted full duty exemption for import of non-edible oils till such time local supply of alternative crops stabilised.

The biofuel programme, she said, would receive a "tremendous boost" if full excise duty exemption was granted for the biofuel component of petroleum products. "This will enable extending better prices to the farmers who sell their farm produce to the biofuel producers. This will be a good incentive enabling farmers to go in for these alternative crops."

The Centre must provide a comprehensive package of support for the accelerated development of biofuels. The production of biofuels must be declared a priority industry on a par with the infrastructure sector, just as in the case of power projects and provided all the concessions extended to the power sector, she said.

Alternative crops such as sweet sorghum, sugar beet and jatropha and the production of biofuels offered a "brilliant new option which will provide better incomes to farmers, tackle the water stress situation and at the same time provide new opportunities in rural areas through rural agro-based industry."

Ms. Jayalalithaa said she was glad that the Prime Minister too had placed emphasis on agriculture and the rural sector, and added that she recently launched a new programme to promote water-efficient crops which would provide the biomaterial needed for downstream processing to get value-added products. "It is in our national interest to promote the development of these crops."

The Chief Minister said she had invited industrial houses to invest in the downstream processing facilities contiguous with the farmlands where these crops could be promoted through contract farming. "I view this as an important breakthrough to reinvigorate the agriculture sector in Tamil Nadu, particularly in the context of the continued water scarcity faced by the State."

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