By IANS,
New Delhi : The government is mulling levying a cess on plastic usage at the rate of 0.5 percent of the manufacturing or import price of the material to set up waste reprocessing units.
Minister of State for Chemicals and Fertilizers Srikant Jena disclosed this while addressing a panel of lawmakers attached to his ministry here Tuesday.
“A Plastic Waste Reprocessing Fund (on the pattern of Education Cess) be created by levying a charge on the manufactured price of polymers produced or imported into the country,” an official statement quoted him as telling the parliamentary panel.
“This fund, created by levying a cess at a tentative rate of 0.5 percent of the manufacturing price of the polymer should be utilized in promoting the setting up of plastic waste reprocessing units,” he said.
Jena also disclosed the government’s intention to set up a Plastic Waste Management Centre like the one set up in Guwahati and functioning there since August 2009.
During the deliberation on the issue of “Growth of Plastic Industry in the Country and the Role of Central Institute of Plastics Engineering and Technology (CIPET)”, the minister said CIPET has been conducting excellent academic and training programmes on plastic production and management.
It is designing and producing different kinds of plastic tools and components, which are used in defence applications, space projects, rehabilitation centres, railway signal communication, transport, telecommunication and automobile sectors, he added.