The government is likely to raise the price of ethanol by around 5% for supplies to oil-marketing companies for blending with petrol in the next marketing year through November 2018. The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs would soon take up a proposal to increase the ethanol price to around Rs 41 per liter for the 2017-18 marketing year from Rs 39 this year. The increase in the ethanol price would improve the ability of the sugar mills, the largest producers of the bio-fuel, to pay farmers on time for cane supplies.