Govt. to ban import of e-waste from developed nations

New Delhi: After cases of e-waste smuggling being reported recently, the government is in plans to ban the import of used computers and other electronic waste coming from developed nations like U.S., Australia, Canada and parts of Europe. The decision of the government will be taken at the Economic Intelligence Council meeting which will be chaired by Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee, reports Pradeep Thakur of Times of India.

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E-waste which includes unwanted computers, televisions, printers, scanners modems, DVD players, VCR’s and gaming machines contains an alarming range of toxic materials, including lead, cadmium and mercury.

Revenue Secretary Sunil Mitra had asked the Director General of foreign trade to frame appropriate changes in the policy to ban the import of e-wastes when the matter had come up for discussion at the coordination committee meeting of various economic intelligence.

The e-waste issue assumed significance after the Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI) seized some containers in Chennai containing large quantity of such waste and it was sourced from Australia, Canada, Korea and Brunei.
The government has issued a public notice prohibiting educational and other institutions from importing second hand computers, laptops and peripherals. Thought the Finance Ministry wants to impose complete ban on such imports, the commerce ministry did not show much seriousness towards this step.

According to environmental agencies worldwide, dumping of e-waste in India is likely to go up by 500 percent in the next 10 years. Environment bodies have estimated that, India generates nearly 4 lakh tonnes of e-waste annually which is likely to double in the next few years.