Retrospective application of e-waste rules would stifle growth: ICA

Mobile operators have demanded suspension of electronic waste rules of 2016, which seek to cover manufacturing and sales details of the past 10 years.
Retrospective application of e-waste rules would stifle growth: ICA

NEW DELHI: Mobile operators have demanded suspension of electronic waste rules of 2016, which seek to cover manufacturing and sales details of the past 10 years. According to them, the retrospective application of the law is in violation of the Constitution and has potential to throttle industry growth.

“Retrospective and selective application is bad in law and prima facie violation of Article 19(1)(g) and Article 14 of the Constitution of India. The industry is being asked to cover manufacturing and sales going back to as much as ten years,” industry body Indian Cellular Association of India said in a letter to the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY). Under the E-Waste (Management) Rules, 2016, electronic companies are required to provide details of manufacturing and sales in the last 10 years.

There are close to 42 mobile manufacturing units in India, including Samsung and Xiaomi. “E-Waste (Management) Rules, 2016, makes a mockery of the government’s tremendous resolve to enhance ease of doing business. The rules should to be put in abeyance, and reconsideration and re-evaluation need to be done,” the letter stated. The joint taskforce on mobile manufacturing, under MeitY, has set a handset export target of 120 million by 2019-20.Efforts are on to take local production to 290 million in 2017- 18, from 175 million in 2016-17. The lobby group said Indian mobile manufacturing and trade environment is highly fragmented with a massive informal sector presence. The trade is carried out through numerous distributors and over 250,000 retail shops and unlike the West, mobile phones are not bundled with services. “Tremendous momentum that has been witnessed in the mobile phone and component industry can get scuttled if the environment ministry does not mend its ways,” the letter noted. 

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