GOBARdhan scheme can cut gas imports by $5B: IBA
Indian Biogas Association (IBA) on Sunday said it expects a $5 billion reduction in the gas import bill due to the Government’s Rs 23,731-crore GOBARdhan Scheme, a circular bioenergy initiative to convert organic waste like agricultural and cow dung into clean energy.
According to an IBA statement, the recently approved GOBARdhan (Galvanising Organic Bio-Agro Resources Dhan) with a financial outlay of Rs 23,731 crore should be viewed as a strategic national investment rather than a public expenditure.
Its returns extend well beyond the bioenergy sector, generating measurable economic, environmental and social dividends through import substitution, rural development and improved agricultural productivity, it stated.
The largest economic payback will arise from reduced natural gas imports. India imports a significant amount (50 per cent) of its natural gas requirements, which exposes the Indian economy to volatile international prices and geopolitical risks.
In FY 2024 -25, the LNG import bill accounted for $15.2 billion (approximately Rs 1.28 lakh crore, assuming an average exchange rate of Rs 84/USD), and though the FY25-26 data is not yet published, it is surely a sharp jump over the previous year, owing to the prolonged West Asia crisis and plummeting INR against USD, according to the association.
Even with a conservative estimate of 1500 fully functional CBG plants in the forthcoming years, the trade deficit on account of natural gas import shall be at least diminished by one-third of its current level, i.e. $5 billion (approximately Rs 40 lakh crore).
Another significant source of payback is the reduction in fertiliser imports and subsidy burden. CBG facilities produce Fermented Organic Manure (FOM) and liquid bio-slurry rich in essential plant nutrients. Their use supplements chemical fertilisers, particularly imported phosphatic and potassic fertilisers, while reducing dependence on subsidised urea. It stated that lower fertiliser imports and subsidy requirements translate into significant fiscal savings, making the scheme economically self-reinforcing.
In FY 24-25, the fertiliser import bill accounted for Rs 18 billion (approximately Rs 1.5 lakh crore). With the estimated 1500 functional CBG plants and adoption of Good Agricultural Practices (optimal blend of synthetic and organic manure), at least 5 per cent of the imports can be reduced, translating into a contribution to the reduction in the Current Account deficit by $1 billion.
The scheme also delivers significant employment generation opportunities, more particularly in the rural areas, thus stimulating local economies and creating skilled as well as semi-skilled livelihoods.
GOBARdhan can transform agricultural residues into income-generating assets for farmers. Healthier soils require lower chemical inputs and ensure a sustainable increase in crop quality. The environmental payback is equally substantial, as setting up CBG plants discourages open burning of biomass, a major contributor to air pollution, more apparent and revealing in the NCR region.
Indian Biogas Association (IBA) is the first and largest nationwide and professional biogas association for stakeholders of the biogas industry, including technology providers, project developers, plant operators and planners of biogas plants, and representatives from public policy, science and research in India.
