Eco-tax proposal irks green activists

Rejecting the Finance Minister’s ‘eco-tax’ proposal aiming to bring down water pollution, green activists on Friday said such tax will only legitimise pollution and destroy water resources.
“If the eco-tax is introduced, the government in principle will acknowledge the pollution, which will make the pollution rampant. The existing environmental law will be ineffective,” Engr Inamul Haque, former director general of River Research Institute, said.
Finance Minister AMA Muhith, in his budget speech on Thursday, proposed imposing one percent ‘Environment Protection Surcharge’ on ad-valorem basis on all kinds of products manufactured by polluting industries.
Inamul Haque, also former director general of Bangladesh Hoar and Wetlands Development Board, said the government should take effective steps to force the industrialists to set up effluent treatment plants (ETPs) in their industries to protect rivers from pollution.
He urged the government to amend the existing environmental law inserting a provision in it to empower to the local government bodies so that their representatives can file case against polluters and fine them.
General secretary of Bangladesh Paribesh Andolan (Bapa) Dr Abdul Matin said the proposal to impose one percent green tax on polluters will not help protect water bodies, according to UNB.