Sakti Sugar is planning to commence production of ethanol in the next year, said M Manickam, executive vice chairman of the company.

The government is considering to extend an additional soft loan of ₹7,400 crore to sugar mills for creating ethanol capacity under a recently launched scheme, according to sources, as reported by PTI.

Reacting to the report, Manickam said that he was not looking at any expansion for ethanol capacity.

“We are just coming out of a drought and we do not have too much of sugarcane at this point of time. So whatever capacity we have at this point of time is adequate,” he said.

Taking about molasses, Manickam said, “The prices vary from state to state, for instance in Tamil Nadu it’s fairly high, i.e Rs 4,000-5,000 and in Uttar Pradesh (UP) it is Rs 200-300 because there is surplus of molasses and they are trying to get rid of it. Therefore, it’s widely fluctuating in different states.”