Porvorim: Chief minister Pramod Sawant, who holds the civil supplies and consumer affairs portfolio, on Tuesday told the assembly that the state has not received a single complaint from consumers, vehicle owners, automobile associations or garages regarding E20 petrol since its introduction in the state.Sawant was replying to a calling attention motion moved by MLAs Venzy Viegas, Vijai Sardesai and Cruz Silva, who flagged reduced mileage, performance issues and rising maintenance costs faced by owners of pre-2023 vehicles, especially taxi drivers and motorcycle pilots, and demanded that consumers be given the option of unblended petrol.“E20 is a central govt subject, governed by a central policy, which we have adopted since 2023,” Sawant said. “Although no complaint has been received so far, I will direct the civil supplies department to check, verify and monitor the situation, and to carry out testing. Consumers with complaints may approach the civil supplies department.”In his written reply, Sawant said E20 is being supplied in Goa by three oil marketing companies through 157 retail outlets since 2025. He said laboratory studies and field trials by ARAI, SIAM, IOCL and IIP have confirmed E20 is safe, including for legacy vehicles, with no significant wear or performance loss. Any mileage reduction in E10-designed vehicles is “generally limited to about 3-5%,” he said, while manufacturers continue honouring warranties on E20-run vehicles.Citing central data, the CM said the ethanol blending programme has saved over Rs 2 lakh crore in forex, cut 952 lakh metric tonnes of carbon dioxide emissions, and transferred over Rs 1.7 lakh crore to farmers, with over 20 crore two-wheelers and 3 crore cars running on blended fuel nationally without verified evidence of engine failure. Over 30,000 quality checks have been conducted at outlets recently to check adulteration, he added.
