From July onwards, the National Environment Commission (NEC) will be now charging nominal fees for obtaining environment clearance. A fixed amount of Nu 500 will be charged per application.
For construction of roads, power transmission and distribution lines, Nu 2 will be charged for every meter.
For mining and quarry activity, Nu 1.300 per acre is charged for processing an application for Environment Clearance. The fee levied for processing an application for industries is based on the size of the investment.
Nu 200 will be charged for small cottage industry, Nu 30,000 for medium and Nu 50,000 for large.
For of hydropower project, Nu 1,000 will be charged per Mega Watt.
Likewise, for forestry activities, Nu 2 will be charged per acre.
For urban activities like construction of commercial and residential buildings, the fee will be Nu 1000. It will be Nu 5,000 per activity for constructing hotels and resorts.
For other activities, which do not fall in lists, a flat fee of Nu 2,000 per activity will be applicable.
For renewal the fee for processing an application of the environment clearances is 20 percent of the initial processing fee irrespective of activities.
The fee structure was drawn in line with the Environment Assessment Act 2000.
The Introduction of Fee Schedules is to cover the costs of administering the environment assessment involved in processing the clearance.
“…If you look at the fee schedules it is very minimal, we have kept it minimum as possible. We are also not quite sure that it is going to be enough to cover cost of administering the act. Right now this is just almost like a test run,” said an environment officer, Tshering Choden.
