Finalisation stage of policy on plastic units in SEZs

The Department of Chemicals and Petrochemicals (DCPC) will coordinate with the Directorate General of Export Promotion (DGEP) and the Ministry of Environment and Forests for strengthening of the existing regulatory mechanism on policy on plastic unit

The Department of Chemicals and Petrochemicals (DCPC) will coordinate with the Directorate General of Export Promotion (DGEP) and the Ministry of Environment and Forests for strengthening of the existing regulatory mechanism on policy on plastic units in SEZs.

This was decided during a recent meeting to discuss the finalisation of policy on plastic units in SEZs.

The DCPC was, however, not in favour of setting up new plastic units for recycling in SEZs. It said that Indian is already the largest recycler of plastics in the world and SEZ recycling units with permission to import recyclable plastic opened the door for import of non-permitted hazardous plastic and other waste which was impossible to regulate.

?It also provided unfair competition to DTA units in compliance with the law,? the DCPC said.

The department suggested that import of plastic waste and scrap by existing SEZ units should be strictly guided by the provision issued by DGFT and also suggested strict regulatory mechanism for existing units.

After detailed discussion, the following decisions were taken:
1.DGEP, Ministry of Environment and Forests and DCPC will send their input about further strengthening of the existing regulatory mechanism.
2.The strengthened regulatory framework must ensure that law is compiled with and municipal and consumer plastics waste are not allowed to be imported by the plastics units. As intended by the law, the plastic to be imported must be clean and without any residue or contamination which can be processed without any cleaning or generating effluents, i.e., virgin plastic.
3.Prudent provisions related to export obligations must be examined and enforced in the case of plastic processing units so that they are not to be allowed to defeat the logic of their SEZ location by primarily supplying products to DTA.
4.The issue of a policy on setting up of new units could be considered subsequently.