Littering is so common in India that nobody thinks about it. While throwing litter on streets and in public places there is no second thought in many of our minds. It is a given. It is birth right for many of us. For those who are conscious, enough dustbins are not available in public places to place the litter. Finally litter attracts litter.
To bring both these aspects together i.e., to discourage littering and to provide enough infrastructure for collecting/managing litter, policy intervention is required. Such a policy shall both discourage littering and facilitate litter management. TAX ON LITTER will serve both these purposes.
Tax on litter can be two pronged. One, on all citizens as a general tax. The logic behind this is : each and every citizen at some point in time causes littering in public spaces. To achieve litter free streets regular investment is required. To enjoy litter-free public spaces, one need to pay in terms of Litter tax. Another is taxing those manufacturers, service providers who generate litter-able packaging. This may discourage them from litter-able packaging and encourage moving towards bio degradable packaging. Even bio degradable packaging also requires removal and management. Therefore litter tax on those manufacturers would generate enough funds for this purpose.
Litter control tax or fee is not a new concept. Washington State, State of Virginia, State of New Jersey in US, Ireland in Europe have implemented tax/fee on litter. Mainly, categories like food for human or pet consumption, groceries, cigarettes and tobacco products, soft drinks and carbonated beverages,beer and other malt beverages,wine, newspapers and magazines, household paper and paper products,glass containers,metal containers, plastic or fiber containers made of synthetic material,cleaning agents and toiletries,non-drug drugstore sundry items etc have been under this tax. In India, in addition, ghutka packaging, snacks packaging like that of bhujia etc can also be added.
There is a debate on whether such a tax on litter is good economics or not. Whatever it is, in India, such a tax is necessary at least to raise funds to take care of health issues of rag pickers.
In next post we will address issues related to rag pickers.
