The Hindu Business Line : FICCI says no to carbon tax concept

New Delhi, Dec. 3 While suggesting sector specific measures that would encourage Indian companies to adopt technologies that reduce green house gas (GHG) emissions, industry body FICCI today spoke out against the idea of levying a carbon tax on companies based on the extent of GHG emissions of each enterprise.

In its climate change task force report which has been presented to the Prime Minister’s Council on Climate Change, FICCI also suggested the Government provide tax/duties exemptions to energy efficient equipment. “The imposition of carbon tax would raise the price of fossil fuels and lead to lower growth rates, make energy-intensive sectors less competitive globally,” it said.

It has suggested that energy audits should be mandated for specific industry sectors (above a certain power and fuel consumption threshold) by forming a regulatory body. “Just like environment audits and statements are submitted by companies, energy audit reports should also be submitted in the form of energy statement,” Dr Prodipto Ghosh, Chairman-FICCI Climate Change Task Force said here today.

The key recommendations of the report would be presented at the UN summit on climate change at Bali, where FICCI is taking a 15-member delegation to put forth the views of Indian industry.

FICCI reiterated that India would not take on mandatory emission reduction norms since the per capita GHG emissions of India is much lower compared to developed countries. “India’s per capita GHG emission is only 1.2 tonnes of carbon dioxide, as against the US’s 20 tonnes. We emit 1/20th of USA, 1/12th of Japan and 1/15th of EU-15,” Dr Amit Mitra, Secretary General, FICCI, said.

FICCI has also called for promotion of Indian operational entities (project validators and verifiers) in order to reduce the transaction costs. At present, all project validators and verifiers are “foreign-based organisations or their Indian subsidiaries”.

Additionally, to ensure a quality check on consultants advising on CDM (clean development mechanism) projects, it has suggested that CDM consultants be accredited by the Government or Government approved agencies. CDM projects are those projects from developing countries that earn carbon credits from the UN under the Kyoto protocol.

At an international level, from the CDM executive board, FICCI has called for including nuclear projects as CDM projects and encouraging transfer of technologies. It has also suggested standardisation on the part of validators and verifiers while treating similar projects across different geographies to reduce subjectivity in the CDM process.

More Stories on : Environment | Taxation | Industry Associations

Article E-Mail :: Comment :: Syndication :: Printer Friendly Page