Green Tax Collection
NBR preparing list of polluting industries
The National Board of Revenue has taken an initiative to prepare a list of polluting industries for imposing and collecting newly introduced green tax, officials said.
The list will be prepared with the help of Department of Environment of the environment and forest ministry, they said. DoE has already been asked to provide such list, if it has any.
The government in the finance bill approved by the parliament on June 28 included a provision of imposing one per cent environment protection surcharge or green tax on the prices of products manufactured by the industries which pollute environment.
Green tax, first of its kind in the country, will be effective from July 1.
NBR has already started preliminary work to implement the new budgetary initiative to protect the country’s environment.
But the response from the environment department is not satisfactory at all, NBR officials blamed.
‘Till now, we have requested the DoE to provide the list of polluting industries, but we are yet to get any response,’ a high official of the NBR told New Age on Saturday.
In last week, DoE informed us that they have some confusion about the issue, he said.
Now, value-added tax wing of the NBR has taken an initiative to sit with the DoE officials to prepare the list, he said, adding that the meeting might be held in a day or two.
The revenue board has already requested the Internal Resources Division of the finance ministry for creating a separate code to deposit the collected green tax in the government exchequer.
It will also prepare a rule describing the procedures of imposing and collecting green tax which will be collected with VAT.
The tax has been imposed to encourage the owners of the industries which cause pollution to set up effluent treatment plants in their industries.
Many industries from leather, dying, printing, chemical, and textile sectors pollute air, soil and water through discharging untreated industrial wastage.
-With New Age input
