Exide wants green norms imposed on battery importers

Storage battery major Exide Industries has appealed to the environment and commerce ministry to enforce the existing rule of filing of environment compliance report by importers of batteries.

It has also demanded stringent measures against unauthorised smelting units, which it feels is harming the environment.

Lead fumes harm the human body and is non-degradable. The unorganised storage battery sector that gets raw materials from unauthorised smelting units is bigger than the organised battery segment.

Director (corporate affairs) Sudhir Chand said Exide Industries was now working jointly with pollution control boards (PCB) of different states to stop this harmful practice of smelting lead in unauthorised units, that ultimately leads to environmental pollution.

According to Chand, the government introduced a law in 2001 following the M G K Menon committee report on hazardous waste. The law says that that for every 100 batteries produced, the manufacturer should collect 90 dead battery from customers. Chand alleged this was not being followed.

"Some units are not bothered about taking back old batteries and imports have become more attractive than production in small units," he said.

Exide would like a system of quarterly reports on batteries produced and recollected to be submitted to pollution authorities. Chand said the unorganised sector and importers have 52 per cent share in the 7-8 million unit replacement battery market.

Imports account for 8 per cent and around 12 per cent is produced by registered small scale manufacturers, but the rest of the units are unregistered.

Chand alleged some dealers were giving old batteries from customers to unauthorised smelting units as these units are paying more than the organised sector for used batteries.

"Small smelters offer Rs 180 per battery to dealers compared with Rs 120 offered by organised manufacturers," he said.

Exide recently launched low priced batteries under the Conrex brand for buyers of batteries from unorganised manufacturers.