At long last the government means to implement the 'Polluters Pay Principle' by imposing one percent environmental surcharge on polluting industries and providing tax holiday for non-polluting brickfields.

For a long time green activists have been

demanding an imposition of a green tax on polluters to bring down the levels of pollution in rivers.

Finance Minister AMA Muhith, in his budget speech yesterday, proposed imposing one percent 'Environment Protection Surcharge' or 'Green Tax' on ad-valorem basis on all kinds of products manufactured by polluting industries.

The government is levying the tax to industries to set up effluent treatment plants (ETPs) at their premises and make them aware of the harmful effects of pollution, he said.

The Buriganga and other rivers around Dhaka, including the Turag, the Bangshi, the Balu and the Shitalakkhya, and the Karnaphuli in Chittagong have become highly polluted owing to a dumping of industrial and household wastes in them.

Among them, the Buriganga, the lifeline of Dhaka, is the most polluted, with zero oxygen level in its waters for nine months of a year because of toxic tannery wastes from Hazaribagh being dropped into it.

In his speech, the finance minister said the tanneries would be relocated to Savar from Hazaribagh by March 2015.

Apart from leather and dyeing, industries such as brick kilns and ship breaking also contribute to environmental pollution.

In the annual development programme of 2014-15, the government has included two major projects - 'Water Pollution Abatement for Environment Protection in Greater Dhaka and Chittagong' and 'Introduc-

lion of Environmental Sound Management of POPs in Ship Breaking Industries' - to protect the environment.

The government is negotiating with donors to mobilise funds and implement these projects, as stated in the budget.

To protect ecology, the government has proposed a tax holiday for nonpolluting Hybrid Hoffman Kiln (HHK) brickfields.

After allocating Tk 2,555 crore to the Bangladesh Climate Change Trust Fund (BCCTF) in the last five fiscal years to implement different projects, the government has decided to reduce allocation in the proposed budget.

Without mentioning the new allocation to the BCCTF, Muhith said the government would take steps to increase the Bangladesh Climate Change Resilience Fund (BCCRF) with the assistance of development partners.

The development partners have already provided $186.9 million in BCCRF. In the proposed budget, the government has also placed emphasis on sustainable afforestation in the coastal and char areas by allocating Tk 50 crore as block allocation.