Water cess: MPCB seeks commitment from Nuclear Power Corp

The Maharashtra Pollution Control Board, which has issued a show cause notice to the Nuclear Power Corporation of India Limited for non-payment of the water cess for its Tarapur atomic power plant, today said the board will not take any action against NPCIL once it give its commitment.

"Once the NPCIL makes commitment to the board within 15 days, we will not take any action," senior legal officer of MPCB, Dattratraya Devle said.

The showcause notice said the NPCIL has not paid their cess of Rs 27 crore since 1983 although it was mandatory as per the Water (Prevention and Control of Pollution) Cess Act 1977 and for the industries in Maharashtra it became applicable since 1983, Devle said.

"We have made several correspondence with NPCIL and also warned them to pay the amount in the show cause notice issued on September 16," Devle added.

Meanwhile, NPCIL said they have already complied with the required norms of the MPCB for Tarapur units 3 and 4 and even paid Rs 60 lakh in advance as per the amended Act of 1977 which came into being in March 2003.

"What the MPCB is asking is the cess of Tarapur 1 and 2 units which they say is payable from 1983," NPCIL chairman and managing director S K Jain said adding, "Actually it should be payable from 2003 when the amendment in the Act was made in March 2003 for all types of power plants."

"The application for according consent was filed with the MPCB by NPCIL on April 15, 2005, complying with all the provisions and depositing the required money," Jain said adding, "As per the act, of nothing is heard within four months, the clearance is deemed to have been accorded."

Jain said in 1983, the water cess was applicable for only thermal power plants while in 2003, it was announced for all types of power plants.

He said, "The board's contention is not correct as nuclear power was included in the Water Cess Act only from March 2003."

The NPCIL has also appealed to the Union ministry of environment and forest to issue a notification to the MPCB considering the specificity of nuclear power where "we are not releasing any pollutant in air and also there is no chemical discharged in water", Jain said.

"We have told the ministry to write to the board that nuclear power should be considered as clean development mechanism (CDM)," he said.

Similarly, the hydel power industry has also written letters to the ministry that it should be exempted from the water cess, Jain added.