Deadline to levy additional duty on unblended diesel deferred
The Centre has deferred the deadline to levy an additional ₹2 per litre tax on unblended diesel by one more year to April 1, 2025, according to a Central Board of Indirect Taxes and Customs (CBIC) said in a notification. The levy on petrol and diesel that is not blended with ethanol and bio-diesel, respectively was announced in FY23 budget. The move was in line with with government’s commitment to promoting biofuels and reducing crude imports. India remains the world’s third-biggest crude importer and consumer, importing around 85% of its total consumption. It has set a target to cut imports by 10% to 67% by 2025 by enhancing domestic crude production, ethanol blending and shifting focus to renewables, green hydrogen and promoting electric vehicles among others.
NGEL signs MoU with Govt of Maharashtra for development of Green Hydrogen Projects
NTPC Green Energy Limited (NGEL) signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with Govt of Maharashtra for development of Green Hydrogen and derivatives (Green Ammonia, Green Methanol) of up to 1 million ton capacity per annum, including Pump Hydro Projects of 2 GW and development of RE projects with or without storage up to 5GW in the state. The MoU was exchanged between NGEL’s Chief Executive Officer Mohit Bhargava and GoM’s Deputy Secretary (Energy) Narayan Karad in the presence of Chief Minister Deputy CM and other senior officials. The above MoU has been signed as a part of Green Investment Plan of Govt of Maharashtra in the next five years and envisages a potential investment of approximately Rs 800 billion. NTPC is in the path of building up RE capacity of 60 GW by 2032. NGEL is a wholly-owned subsidiary of NTPC and aims to be the flag bearer of NTPC’s Renewable Energy journey with an operational capacity of over 3.4 GW and 26 GW in pipeline including 7 GW under implementation.
41% in India still rely on biomass for cooking, emitting 340 mn tonnes of CO2 annually
Forty-one percent of the Indian population still uses wood, cow dung or other biomass as cooking fuel and cumulatively emits around 340 million tonnes of carbon dioxide into the environment every year, which is about 13 per cent of India’s greenhouse gas emissions, according to a new report. The report “India’s Transition to E-cooking” by the independent think tank Centre for Science and Environment also said that the Pradhan Mantri Ujjwala Yojana led to a rapid expansion in access to liquified petroleum gas (LPG) in India, but it has “not guaranteed a sustained transition to clean cooking in households” that benefited from the scheme. Around a third of the world’s population 2.4 billion people globally (including 500 million people in India) still lack access to clean cooking solutions. This causes untold damage to the economy, public health and the environment. Approximately three million people globally (including 0.6 million people in India) die prematurely every year because of indoor air pollution. These deaths are mostly caused by wood-based cooking, the report said, citing research conducted in the past. Although the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas (MOPNG) claims that the country’s household LPG “coverage” stands at 99.8 per cent, the National Family Health Survey conducted in 201921 (NFHS-5) shows that 41 per cent of the population still cooks on biomass, it said. “CSE’s own calculations have found that this 41 per cent cumulatively emits — when it cooks on wood, cow dung or other biomass around 340 million tonnes of CO2 (carbon dioxide) into the environment every year, which is about 13 per cent of India’s national GHG emissions,” the report said. A review of India’s last Biennial Update Report (BUR3) to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change shows this particular sectoral emission is not counted as part of national emissions. Through PMUY launched in May 2016, more than 100 million households in India received LPG cylinders by the end of March 20