In continuation to what we reported earlier in the e-mails below, the Central Pollution Control Board, with a view to facilitate the effective implementation of the Extended Producer Responsibility (“EPR”) Guidelines has additionally taken the following measures:
i. The requirement to submit Offsite/ Onsite Disaster Management Plan by the Producers at the time of filing for registration has been done away with. Instead, Producers are directed to confirm in the application for registration that adequate Occupational safety/ Health and Fire safety measure, etc. have been provided in their plant;
ii. An additional condition requiring all units to obtain all other statutory clearances / permissions regarding Occupational Safety, Health & Fire safety and implementing necessary measures including Offsite/ Onsite Disaster Management Measures as mandated by the concerned Authorities and the provisions of the laws/rules/regulations in place is required to be included in the conditions enumerated in the Registration certificate;
iii. Producers are required to provide details of manufacturing products other than Plastic Packaging in the specific portion of the application. The CPCB, State Pollution Control Boards (“SPCBs”) and Pollution Control Committees (“PCCs”) must refer to this information while processing the application especially in cases where a wide gap is observed in between the plastic raw material consumption and the waste generation data;
iv. Directions have been issued to all SPCBs/PCCs to set up help desk to address the EPR related issues as well as to organize training programs for stakeholders;
v. The time slabs in the late fee mechanism have been relaxed for the current year in the following manner:
| Existing Time Slabs | New Time Slabs |
| Less than 7 days | Less than 21 days |
| 8-14 days | 22-30 days |
| 15-21 days | 31-45 days |
| 22-30 days | 46-60 days |
| Greater than 30 days | Greater than 60 days |
|
[Note: Late fee @ 50% of the existing rates shall be payable (as applicable) till 31.12. 2023 |
|
[Note: Late fee @ 50% of the existing rates shall be payable (as applicable) till 31.12. 2023
vi. The Centralized EPR Portal has also been updated to incorporate the below-mentioned changes:
• Provisions for processing application for grant of EPR Registration of Producers on basis of submission of application for grant of Consent to SPCBs/PCCs. Directions to this effect have been issued to SPCBs/PCCs which would remain valid till 31st October, 2023;
• Simplification of Registration process for MSME producers;
• Accounting of Plastic Packaging sold to unregistered Brand Owners (Large/Medium category) by Producers for assessment of EPR obligations;
• Provision for Bulk Uploading of transaction details by Producers, Importers and Brand Owners (“PIBOs”);
• Provision for Auto-registration of Importers if total plastic waste generation (Pre + Post) is lesser than 1 ton.
A Copy of the Notification is linked below for your ease of reference.
Source: Central Pollution Control Board
