‘Green energy cess’

BANGALORE: The draft renewable policy has proposed to levy a “green energy cess” of five paise per unit on the electricity consumed by the commercial and industrial consumers.

The funds raised by levying the cess would be used to create a corpus fund for supporting renewable energy projects, research and development, bio-fuel projects, and energy efficiency and energy conservation programmes.

Such a cess should be levied in recognition of the importance of renewable energy with respect to the benefits in the field of environment and social development, the draft policy said.  Thursday disclosed that the State Government was contemplating forming a comprehensive policy governing sand excavation and sand transportation on the lines of the one unveiled in Tamil Nadu, to preserve sand reserves from indiscriminate extraction.

The Minister said the policy governing extraction of sand from the riverbanks has become the need of the hour, considering the concerns over illegal sand mining. — Staff Correspondent