Set up 'Biogas Fertiliser Fund': IBA

New Delhi: The Indian Biogas Association (IBA) has urged the government to set up a 'Biogas Fertiliser Fund' with an initial provision of Rs 1.4 lakh crore for five years, as it has the potential to benefit five crore farmers and to reduce fossil fuel import bill.

For materializing the envisaged target of 5,000 plants under the SATAT (Sustainable Alternative Towards Affordable Transportation) scheme, creating a 'Biogas-Fertilizer Fund' with an initial provision/corpus of Rs 1.4 lakh crore for the first five years period should be a welcome step, IBA said in a statement. "The government has constantly been talking about doubling the income of farmers by 2022. 50 million farmers will be benefitted with the outlay. Biogas Fertilizer Fund will not only ensure that India imports less fossil fuel but also help farmers with bio-fertiliser," A R Shukla, President, IBS said.

The IBA has also suggested defining a blending quota for statutory mixing of biomethane (CBG) in the city gas distribution network and natural gas pipeline. A tentative blending quota of 5 per cent for the first five year, followed by progressively increasing it up to 10 per cent at the end of 10 years. It also stated that the GST council recently notified the escalation of the GST slab from 5 per cent to 12 per cent for biogas plant-related equipment and their parts. "This has put the biogas producers in a challenging situation. With the end product, biogas, and its other upgraded forms being slated at 5 per cent GST slab, the GST rate escalation further aggravates the existing inverted tax structure concerns, which eventually cascades onto an increase in the overall project price," it pointed out.