The Hindu Business Line : Industry seeks fiscal incentives for environmental compliance

FISCAL incentives from the government could be given to companies that comply with environmental regulations. This has been suggested by top CEOs across industries in a survey conducted by the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI) on environmental technology absorption by the industry.

According to the survey, 87 per cent of the companies felt that the government should recognise their efforts at environmental compliance by offering fiscal incentives. In other words, companies that comply with these regulations should be rewarded with benefits in taxation and customs duty, and preferential treatment, it said.

Elaborating on the specific fiscal incentives outlined by the companies, the survey revealed that the incentives included customs duty waiver on pollution control equipment, sales tax exemption on purchase of pollution control equipment, soft loans to install pollution control measures and new technologies for mitigation of pollution. Besides these, the companies sought higher depreciation allowance under the Income-Tax Act from the present 100 per cent to 150 per cent.

The CEOs also urged exemption of excise duty for products manufactured through an environment-friendly process. Units complying with best environment management practices could be recommended by the Government for lower insurance premium and lower interest rates, they said.

Those surveyed also sought 5 per cent subsidy on customs duty to ISO 14001-certified companies, excise duty exemption for all pollution control equipment and environmental lab testing instruments procured by industries. Further, subsidised power supply to operate effluent treatment plants and sales tax concessions for plants conforming to all environmental norms for the past three years was sought.

The biggest sources of pollution identified by industries were wastewater and air pollution followed by solid waste, hazardous waste and noise pollution.

Further, all respondents emphasised that they were taking measures towards environment management in their units. The survey indicated that nearly 71 per cent of the responding industries have a wastewater treatment facility and 66 per cent also have air pollution monitoring and control techniques.

Next to wastewater and air pollution, the industries placed emphasis on implementing technologies for energy efficiency, recycling and re-use. However, CEOs identified the need for far greater attention to wastewater treatment, with almost 72 per cent of the opinion that still more measures needed to be taken up.