mumbai union transport minister nitin gadkari friday pushed for greater usage of biofuels to reduce indias annual oil import bill of 7 lakh crore putting the onus on local carmakers to make more vehicles that can run on fossilfuel substitutes the ministers exhortation comes a day after the gst council recommended reducing the producer levy on biofuels to 12 from 18 a move seen to simultaneously support the farm sector and use cash saved on oil imports to help achieve new delhis socialsector objectives it is part of my conviction we are importing crude oil worth rs 7 lakh crore gadkari told top banking and capitalmarkets experts during a discussion at the et markets prebudget meet in mumbai on friday we dont need a timeframe this is going to happen regardless of whether our auto industry likes it or not they have to accept it india imports more than fourfifths of its crude oil needs industry ready for challenge the commodity dwarfs all others in the countrys shopping basket increasing overseas dependence on crude oil particularly during periods of tightening supplies and rising prices typically widens indias current account deficit while putting pressure on the currency and interest rates on his part the managing director of indias biggest tractor maker mahindra mahindra said that the industry is ready to accept the challenge which is seen as the starting point in the countrys eventual transition to an allelectric fleet by 2030 also read diesel cess to fund study on pollutions impact on health cpcb we had the biofuels programme in mahindra but the lack of biofuels availability back then had led us to defer it said pawan goenka who was also attending the event you will soon see a lot of vehicles running on biofuels this is a very big incentive to introduce the technology which will ultimately reduce oil import costsbiofuels are often used as gasoline substitutes in the us and brazil where increasingly vehicles are manufactured to run both on traditional fossil fuels and greener energy navy remarks separately gadkari cleared the air on reports criticising the indian navy for its refusal to allow a floating jetty at malabar hill in south mumbai but why should we seek an noc noobjection certificate when the area isnt the navys he said adding that he respected the defence forces and appreciated their valour he clarified that the navy had approached the mumbai port trust for a housing project and that his objection was to the specific use of that land for the residential project in south mumbai et bureau published on jan 20 2018 at 0738 am ist telegram facebook copy link be the first one to comment comment now comments comment now read comment 1 all comments post post find this comment offensive choose your reason below and click on the submit button this will alert our moderators to take actions reasons for reporting foul language defamatory inciting hatred against a certain community out of context spam others