Skip to main content

New pollution-monitoring norms to be finalized in 2-3 months

The environment ministry has proposed standards to regulate at least 22 sectors over the past few months
The Union environment ministry has proposed new pollution monitoring standards for industries in at least 22 sectors over the past few months in an attempt to regulate these sectors better.
Some of these standards have been put online for suggestions and comments from various stakeholders.
“These would be finalized and notified within the next two to three months. These proposed standards will immensely strengthen the ministry’s overall regulation of the polluting industries,” said a senior environment ministry official, who did not want to be identified.
The 22 sectors include industries such as paint, fertilizers, cement and co-processing, pulp and paper, sugar, thermal power plants, textiles, slaughterhouses, brick kilns, coffee, common effluent treatment plants, sewage treatment plants, fermentation (distilleries, maltries and breweries) and diesel generator sets.
In February , the Centre for Science and Environment, a non-governmental organization, had in a report pointed to the severe air pollution caused by thermal power plants across the country.
The National Green Tribunal and the Supreme Court have also pulled up the environment ministry over the issue of air and water pollution.
The senior ministry official cited earlier said that the new standards would check both air and water pollution.
“Some of the industries in the list of 22 are highly polluting industries like cement and fertilizers,” the official added.
The new standards focuses on waste-water management to check groundwater pollution from toxic discharges.
One of the draft monitoring standards also talks about “bathing water quality criteria” as part of the efforts to “restore sanctity of rivers”.
The move seems to be a result of the severe criticism from activists that the environment ministry is only keen on giving green clearances to industries for various projects.
Environment minister Prakash Javadekar, meanwhile, has been stressing on online monitoring of industries for greater transparency and also to address staff shortage.
“These new proposed standards would complement efforts of online monitoring. One, there is staff crunch, and two, there are thousands of industries... so physical monitoring of all such industries is nearly impossible,” said the official cited earlier.
Environmentalist Manoj Misra, however, called for strict implementation of all rules.
“Things like pollution control should be a more people-centric movement. However, over the period of time, the general public has been excluded from pollution controlling activities. How will the government guarantee that the new system will not become dysfunctional in some time? There is no feedback mechanism where the common people can report to the government about pollution around them,” said Misra, convenor of Yamuna Jiye Abhiyaan, a civil society campaign to save the Yamuna river.
HT Mint, New Delhi, 10th August 2015 

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

New income tax slab and rates for new tax regime FY 2023-24 (AY 2024-25) announced in Budget 2023

  Basic exemption limit has been hiked to Rs.3 lakh from Rs 2.5 currently under the new income tax regime in Budget 2023. Further, the income tax slabs in the new tax regime has been changed. According to the announcement, 5 income tax slabs will be there in FY 2023-24, from 6 income tax slabs currently. A rebate under Section 87A has been enhanced under the new tax regime; from the current income level of Rs.5 lakh to Rs.7 lakh. Thus, individuals opting for the new income tax regime and having an income up to Rs.7 lakh will not pay any taxes   The income tax slabs under the new income tax regime will now be as follows: Rs 0 to Rs 3 lakh - 0% tax rate Rs 3 lakh to 6 lakh - 5% Rs 6 lakh to 9 lakh - 10% Rs 9 lakh to Rs 12 lakh - 15% Rs 12 lakh to Rs 15 lakh - 20% Above Rs 15 lakh - 30%   The revised Income tax slabs under new tax regime for FY 2023-24 (AY 2024-25)   Income tax slabs under new tax regime Income tax rates under new tax regime O to Rs 3 lakh 0 Rs 3 lakh to Rs 6 lakh 5% Rs 6

Jaitley plans to cut MSME tax rate to 25%

Income tax for companies with annual turnover up to ?50 crore has been reduced to 25% from 30% in order to make Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSME) companies more viable and also to encourage firms to migrate to a company format. This move will benefit 96% or 6.67 lakh of the 6.94 lakh companies filing returns of lower taxation and make MSME sector more competitive as compared with large companies. However, bigger firms have shown their disappointment since the proposal for reducing tax rates was to make Indian firms competitive globally and it is the large firms that are competing globally. The Finance Minister foregone revenue estimate of Rs 7,200 crore per annum for this for this measure. Besides, the Finance Minister refrained from removing or reducing Minimum Alternate Tax (MAT), a popular demand from India Inc., but provided a higher period of 15 years for carry forward of future credit claims, instead of the existing 10-year period. “It is not practical to rem

Don't forget to verify your income tax return in August: Here's the process

  An ITR return needs to be verified within 120 days of filing of tax return. Now that you have filed your income tax return, remember to verify it because your return filing process is not complete unless you do so. The CBDT has reduced the time limit of ITR verification to 30 days (from 120 days) from the date of return submission. The new rule is applicable for the returns filed online on or after 1st August 2022. E-verification is the most convenient and instant method for verifying your ITR. However, if you prefer not to e-verify, you have the option to verify it by sending a physical copy of the ITR-V. Taxpayers who filed returns by July 31, 2023 but forget to verify their tax returns, will get the following email from the tax department, as per ClearTax. If your ITR is not verified within 30 days of e-filing, it will be considered invalid, and may be liable to pay a Late Fee. Aadhaar OTP | EVC through bank account | EVC through Demat account | Sending duly signed ITR-V through s