Economic Highlights

New Delhi, 30 October 2023

Warped Pollution Data

PEOPLE PAY A HEFTY PRICE

By Shivaji Sarkar 

Pollution or the supposed climate change plagues the Indian poor the most. Every bit of manufacturing, production, industrial, services, transportation and other activities are linked to these, and taxes levied, increasing the price and cost of living phenomenally. Worse, non-disclosure of crucial data by pollution agencies in Delhi raises more eyebrows. 

In the light of above it’s being asked whether governments are levying unnecessary costs on the economy. Pollution itself becomes the biggest business and the poor are the worst sufferers with about Rs 13.65 lakh crore in petrol cess and additional excise duty for curbing consumption in three years, since 2020-21. Earlier, in five years Rs 13 lakh crore was collected. 

Wonder why three major pollution checking agencies IIT-Kanpur; System of Air-Quality and Weather Forecasting and Research (SAFAR) and Decision Support System stop releasing figures. They reason it’s because of the conflict between the bureaucracy and the Delhi government. On the contrary, it appears they themselves are unsure of the figures. Worldwide pollution has become the tool to raise costs, warns the World Bank. 

Governments, such as in Delhi, Uttar Pradesh take a simple way out -- by further tormenting the people and seizing their cars saying “its end life of the vehicle” without considering the social costs.In 2019, the National Clean Air Programme (NCAP) set a target of reducing ultra-fine particulate matter levels in non-attainment cities by 20-30 per cent by 2022. This target was moved forward by the Union government in September 2022, to a 40 per cent reduction of pollution levels by 2026.However, even in 2022, pollution levels in non-attainment cities remained much higher than the Central Pollution Control Board’s (CPCB) annual average safe limits. 

Poor shopkeepers are blamed for plastic pollution and farmers for air pollution as they seasonally burn stubbles – easiest targets.  Instead, it is one large corporate, MNC soft drink manufacturer, which emerges the biggest plastic polluter and industry, automobile included. As per official statistics, cars and tractors emit 8 percent of the total greenhouse gas. The industry air pollution is 51 percent, according to Confederation of Indian Industry (CII), and costs about Rs 7 lakh crore “as it affects labour productivity and customer footfall”. This appears an overestimation. 

While India has refused to accept western pollution norms till 2070, it must be liberal with the poor people’s cars and tractors. Each new car or tractor making pollutes more or each scrapping apart from making a poor poorer as his mobility hit, is said to pollute more. 

As against this, big international business everywhere is the biggest polluter. The top 12 Indian companies, including one public sector, are listed as the worst polluters. According to the 2022 Brand Audit by Break Free From Plastic, the most common plastic products found in India were food packaging, household products and other packaging materials and the major part of it is ascribed to a US-based company.

In northern India, sugar mills and many other industries are the worst air and water polluters. They have brazenly been dumping effluents across the rivers violating CPCB norms. So- called stricter norms have increased rent seeking, higher parking charges (no one knows how it checks pollution), have made car use more blatant as exorbitant parking charges and high fares make a metro ride costlier. 

The Centre For Policy Research observed in 2019 that environmental regulatory mechanisms face major problems with compliance and implementation. India Spend analysed reports and data from 2014 to 2017 to show how governments at both the State and Central levels diluted environmental regulations, in a scenario wherein they were already lax. Nobody explains if these have connections to donations. A report by Association For Democratic Reforms (ADR) shows JSW Steel as the highest donor to electoral trusts in 2020 with Rs.39.1 crore and Tata Group’s Progressive Electoral Trust gave 75 per cent of the ruling group’s total income from bonds in 2018-19, as notified by the Election Commission.  

State Pollution Control Boards have exempted 146 out of 206 polluting industries from routine inspection. Instead, they can opt for “self-monitoring” and third-party certifications. The Centre’s BRAPs (Business reform Action Plans) which have been implemented since 2014 effectively incentivize States to lessen the environmental protections regarding industries.  

The World Bank says the brunt of rapid, unregulated industrialisation in the name of development is borne by the public in various ways. Local,  Adivasi communities are forcibly displaced and/or live in substandard conditions due to pollution of the local environment and livelihood sources. 

India has 10 of the world’s top 20 most polluted cities, and Indians are exposed to one of the highest rates of air toxicity in the world, according to the World Health Organisation (WHO).

India’s former Chief Economic Advisor Kaushik Basu is of firm opinion that many of the problems are because of policies focusing on big business. What is unsaid is that it boosts the profits and dumps more costs on the poor through various so-called user charges -- be it tolls, high parking charges, cess or petrol prices – all to keep pollution in check. 

This has abated compounded inflation to a high level or in other words it dumps the heavy costs on the poor. The rising cost of living due to 15-month high inflation of 7.44 percent in July, 6.83 percent in August and in September 5.02 percent has most Indians concerned about their personal finances. Inflation remains the biggest concern of Reserve Bank of India despite small moderation. Prices of commodities keep increasing, resulting in the fall of the buying power of Rupee. It hovers above Rs 83 to a dollar. Remember, cost of living keeps increasing if the rupee weakens. 

Often solar and other natural energy sources are said to be non-pollutant. According to a 2016 report by the International Renewable Energy Agency, India is to become one of the top leading photovoltaic waste producers at 3.25 lakh tonnes by 2030. Battery and wind panel wastes are also becoming menaces. 

On September 8, the United Nations once again issued a report saying governments are good at making ambitious collective commitments but fail to take the right action at home to turn these collective pledges into a reality. It says that though Europe is engaged since 1979, Greece and Spain remain the worst polluter.

Pollution increases and so do efforts to put more costs on the people to counter it. No effective action is ever taken despite it being a large revenue generator. Let the world accept its failure and remove the costs imposed for better days ahead for the poor. ---INFA 

(Copyright, India News & Feature Alliance)