Question : COLLECTION OF CESS

(a) the total number of cess collected under the Water (Prevention and Control of Pollution) Cess Act, 1977;

(b) the total number of industries registered under the act and the rate of levy of cess since the act was passed;

(c) whether this levy of cess has deterred the problem of water pollution;

(d) if not, the reasons therefor;

(e) whether the Government has any proposal to introduce new policy guideline to increase the rate of water cess; and

(f) if so, the details thereof and the criteria and norms for the utilization of cess collected aIongwith the details of year-wise expenditures and the number of beneficiaries in the country?

MINISTER OF STATE (INDEPENDENT CHARGE) FOR ENVIRONMENT AND FORESTS (SHRIMATI JAYANTHI NATARAJAN)

(a) The total amount of water cess collected under the Water (Prevention and Control of Pollution) Cess Act, 1977 by the Pollution Control Boards and Pollution Control Committees of the States / Union Territories during the last 3 financial years is as under:-

Financial	Water Cess
Year	Collected	(Rs. in Crores)
2008-09	229.00
2009-10	205.58
2010-11	235.95

S.No.	Purpose for which	Rate of cess	Rate of cess under	water is consumed	under sub-section(2)	sub-section (2A)	of section 3	of section (3)
1.	Industrial cooling,	Five paise per	Ten paise per	spraying in mine	kilolitre	kilolitre	pits or boiler feeds.
2.	Domestic purpose.	Two paise per	Three paise per	kilolitre	kilolitre
3.	Processing whereby	Ten paise per	Twenty paise per	water gets polluted	kilolitre	kilolitre	and the pollutants	are –(i)easily	biodegradable; or	(ii)	non-toxic;or	(iii)	both non-toxic	and easily biodegradable
4.	Processing whereby	Fifteen	paise per	Thirty paise per	water gets polluted	kilolitre	kilolitre	and the pollutants	are –(i)not easily	biodegradable; or	(ii)toxic; or	(iii)both toxic and not	easily biodegradable