Levy Bill based on flawed principales

The Centre for Environment Justice yesterday criticized the so called Environmental Conservation Levy Bill taken for discussion in Parliament on Wednesday. It is neither conserving the environment nor levying the environmental cost.

CEJ Projects Director Dilena Pathragoda told The Island yesterday that the Levy Bill is based on flawed principles, "The Bill is taxing common people to raise funds not for the conservation of the environment but for reasons unknown," he added.

The Island learns that certain countries have adopted Extended Producer Responsibility which comes from the manufacturer as well as user to deal with e-waste. At the same time countries have established mechanisms for collecting, sorting and recycling e-waste and ensuring the proper channelling of funds generated from the tax. However, the proposed bill does not provide any such mechanism.

Pathragoda added: "Our legislature and other executing authorities have miserably failed to create a proper waste management system including e-waste. The failure on the part of the government is not only for economic hardships but bureaucratic inefficiency too.

Waste management has always been a major issue in Sri Lanka but the Central Environmental Authority has failed to implement the decisions taken in the past."

He said that while electronic devices are environmentally harmful; it reduces travelling and improves information technology and communication. Mobile technology has brought far away villages closer to the world.

This was a dream a decade ago. The proposed tax on use of mobile phones, television and radio will violate the constitutional rights of a citizen to access information.

The estimated Rs.1,000 million fund from this environmental conservation tax is not a solution to the present environmental crisis in Sri Lanka.

"If the fund is based on the ‘polluter pays principle’ how come industries pollute large quantities of water or air at the cost of poor?

Again, why are the large scale sand mining tycoons roaming scot-free? The "polluter-pays principle" is the principle according to which the polluter should bear the cost of measures to reduce pollution according to the extent of either the damage done to society or exceeding an acceptable level of pollution.

"We believe that ‘polluter pays principle’ should begin with the big polluting manufacturers. This should not be applied to the common users or consumers," he said.