Bengaluru: After the steep hike in power tariffs, industries in Karnataka are worried as the Centre’s latest amendment to the Air Act, 1981 has increased the mandatory consent fee for their establishment, expansion, and operation.
While the Karnataka State Pollution Control Board (KSPCB) is carefully reviewing whether to implement the Act or continue with the existing fee structure, industries in the state fear that if implemented, the revised fee structure could cost 10-15% of their annual profits.
KSPCB sources told TOI the consent fee would be charged annually based on capital investment of existing and upcoming industries.
“Currently, Karnataka has an affordable consent fee structure for industries based on their scale factor (capital investment). We charge 0.02% of total capital investment as annual consent fee for red-category industries, 0.015% for orange-category industries, and 0.01% for green-category industries. A company with capital investment worth Rs 50 lakh to Rs 1 crore will be charged Rs 7,800 (red category), Rs 6,500 (orange), and Rs 5,200 (green) annually to obtain consent,” explained a senior official from the environment and ecology department.
However, the latest amendment to the Air Act has revised the consent fee scale factor on capital investment considerably, ranging from 0.01% (for those with capital cost exceeding Rs 1,000 crore) to 0.1% (capital cost less than Rs 1 crore).
The official pointed out that many industries, including cement and mining companies, have capital investment exceeding Rs 1,000 crore. “All these companies currently pay a consent fee of Rs 1 crore to Rs 2 crore for five years. But with the implementation of the amended fee structure, they need to pay Rs 5 to Rs 6 crore as annual consent fee. As these are still guidelines of the Centre, Karnataka hasn’t decided on implementing them,” the official clarified.
SS Lingaraju, additional principal chief conservator of forests and member-secretary of KSPCB, said that currently, Karnataka has been charging consent fees based on its own calculation under the Water Act, and the fee structure under the Air Act has been uniform across India. “We have to discuss the advantages and disadvantages of these rules and discuss with the state govt whether to adopt these new rules,” he pointed out.