The Union Budget presented by Finance Minister Arun Jaitley on Wednesday was an opportunity missed when it came to promoting green energy and taxing polluting technologies, environmentalists said.
While the Budget 2017-18 did include provisions for setting up of 20,000 megawatt of solar power generation capacity and lowering import duty on liquefied natural gas (LNG), experts said the budget fell short on environmental issues.
‘An opportunity lost’
“The budget has ignored the larger environment and pollution agenda. It has done nothing on using fiscal instruments to control pollution. There is nothing on public transport, no polluter pays principle, no differentiated tax to discourage polluting technologies,” said Anumita Roychowdhury, the executive director for research and advocacy of the Centre for Science and Environment (CSE) and the head of its air pollution and clean transportation programme.
Ms. Roychowdhury added that the budget was “an opportunity lost”. Last year, the budget had included a strict differential tax on fuels, but this time it was not present, she said.
Sunita Narain, director-general of the CSE, said: “The Economic Survey and the Budget both did not even mention the word environment”.
Others also said though it had some good provisions, the Budget did not go far enough when it came to protecting the environment.
‘In the right direction’
In a statement, The Energy and Resources Institute (TERI), said: “The Budget, while moving in the right direction in some key areas, stops short in others”.
Among the “positives”, TERI said, was the “focus on rural development and agriculture, as well as the move to look at transport in a holistic manner”.
TERI said that if the States adopted the model law on contract farming, efficiency of land and agricultural inputs would increase. But, this could also lead to stress on the environment, including use of water and monoculture.
On the negatives, TERI said that the Budget did not increase allocations towards achieving India’s commitments on renewable energy, energy efficiency and additional carbon sequestration through forestry, which is the controlling of carbon dioxide using trees to absorb it. “Our estimates suggest that the target of additional 2.5 to 3 billion tonnes of carbon sequestration alone will require an annual investment of about ₹1 lakh crore,” said TERI.
