With a view to exempt certain categories of industries from the requirement of obtaining Consent to Establish (“CTE”) and Consent to Operate (“CTO”) under the Air (Prevention and Control of Pollution) Act, 1981, the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change (“MoEFCC”) has issued a Draft Notification inviting comments from the stakeholders till 17th September, 2024.
Key Highlights:
- It has been proposed to exempt all industries/activities categorized as ‘White’ by the Central Pollution Control Board (“CPCB”) from the mandatory condition of obtaining CTE and CTO subject to the fulfillment of the following conditions:
- These units will have to intimate about their operation to the respective State Pollution Control Boards (“SPCBs”) SPCBs / Pollution Control Committees (“PCCs”) in the form of a self- declaration, complying with all the prevalent rules and regulations. They are not required to pay any consent fee;
- SPCBs / PCCs will be required to maintain list of such industries/ activities separately, which shall be updated from time to time;
- SPCBs / PCCs will be required to ensure that no activities other than those intimated, are carried out by such exempted units;
- Proposals have been made to exempt the projects / activities requiring prior Environmental Clearance (“EC”) from obtaining CTE subject to the fulfillment of the following conditions:
- Necessary EC has already been obtained by such projects;
- CTE in all such cases will be deemed to be integrated with the EC;
- The Conditions of CTE, as may be required, will be integrated in the conditions of EC itself in the following manner:
- The competent authority for issuance of EC must communicate the application of the Project Proponent (“PP”) to the concerned SPCB/PCC, as the case may be.
- The concerned SPCB/PCC will examine the case and communicate its comments to the above-referred competent authority within the time limit prescribed by it, which must not be less than 30 days.
- SPCB / PCC may undertake inspection of the site, if required, before sending their comments. Further, SPCB / PCC may also raise queries to the PPs for additional information, if required. Any time taken by the PPs in responding to the queries of SPCBs/PCCs will be in addition to the time limit prescribed.
- The EC granting authority must consider the comments of the concerned SPCB/PCC for inclusion of additional conditions while issuing the EC, which will inter-alia, include that the PP shall pay the requisite CTE fee to SPCBs/PCCs within 30 days of issuance of EC.
- The EC will become operational only after the payment of CTE fee. Delay in payment of CTE fee beyond 30 days may attract late fee as may be decided by the concerned SPCB/PCC
- Such industries/activities shall be required to obtain CTO separately from the SPCB / PCC and any other authorization /permission, wherever required as per the prevailing rules and regulations.
It has further been mentioned that the provisions of the notification, if enacted will be in force with immediate effect.
Background: Representation was received by MoEFCC and CPCB on the consent mechanism regarding high consent fees, non-uniformity in fee structure across States/UTs, time taken in grant of consent, duplication of procedures etc. Subsequently, an amendment of certain provisions of the Air (Prevention and Control of Pollution) Act, 1981 has been made to enable Central Government to exempt certain industries/activities from Consent Mechanism for enhanced trust-based governance, ease of living and ease of doing business.
Objections/Suggestions in this regard may be sent in writing through post to the Secretary, Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change, Indira Paryavaran Bhawan, Jor Bagh Road, Aliganj, New Delhi-110003 or electronically at email address: (mishra.vp@gov.in) or (prasoon.tripathi76@gov.in).
Source: Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change
