Auto Fuel Policy 2025 to be announced in a few months

July 17, 2013: In line with changing emission norms and in compliance with fuel standards of Euro 5 and 6 norms globally, the Union Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas has fired the first salvo by forming a high-level committee for drafting an auto fuel policy for India for the year 2025.

The committee that was formed around 4-5 months ago is headed by Planning Commission member Soumitra Choudhury and has about 12 members drawing from the Ministry of Road Transport and petroleum and Natural Gas, SIAM as well as technical experts. The committee is believed to have held a few meetings to discuss the Vision Document. The proposed policy will lay down standards of auto fuel in compliance with upcoming Euro 5 and 6, says R K Singh, joint secretary of the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas, who is part of the Committee involved in drafting the Auto Fuel Policy.

The Vision Document for the Auto Fuel Policy is likely to be announced within a few months and will lay down the guidelines for implementing the fuel emission norms. However, an issue, according to Singh, is the ability to meet the requirement of refined fuel by the oil companies across the country. The oil companies, which are part of the drafting committee of the vision document, will have to make large investments in enhancing oil refining capacity to supply fuel in line with global standards.

The auto fuel policy will be implemented in a phased manner because of infrastructure constraints. To start with, even the Euro 4 emission norms are yet to cover all cities across India. At present only about 22 cities have BS-IV fuel availability though the target was much higher. Complete enforcement of BS-IV fuel norms is expected by 2015. At a rough estimate, about Rs 50,000-70,000 crore will be spent by the oil companies on refining fuel for making it Euro 5-compliant. Already Rs 35,000 crore has been incurred as expenditure by the oil companies for upgrading fuel to BS-IV standards for a limited number of cities.

SHOBHA MATHUR