Cabinet nod for amendments in Compensatory Afforestation Bill

Passed in Parliament, it could unlock Rs 36,000 crore immediately to states

Crucial amendments to the Compensatory Afforestation Fund Bill, 2015 were allowed by the union cabinet on Wednesday, which fast tracks the process of releasing funds for increasing forest cover in the country worth Rs 40,000 crore, to the states.

The legislation will ensure expeditious utilization of accumulated unspent amounts available with the ad hoc Compensatory Afforestation Fund Management and Planning Authority (CAMPA), which oversees monies collected from industries for compensatory afforestation. It would also see 90 per cent of the accumulated amount, almost Rs 36,000 crore, transferred to states immediately, if passed in Parliament in the upcoming second half of the budget session.

Introduced in the Lok Sabha in May, 2015, the bill provides a mechanism, both at the Centre and the states, to utilize and manage a growing and massive national fund towards afforestation.

According to existing forest laws and a Supreme Court order, the promoter of a project coming up on forest land needs to deposit fixed amounts with the government for afforestation of non-forest land equal to the land diverted. Besides, the project proponent also deposits a 'net present value' of the forest in lieu of the non-tangible benefits lost with the loss of forests. The sums are based on existing rates for different qualities of forests that are chopped down for the projects.

The CAMPA fund was constituted by the apex court as a long term solution for fast vanishing forest cover. Its current valuation of Rs 40,000 crore is significantly greater than the plan outlay for the union environment ministry, which was Rs 2,000 crore in the 2015-16 budget. The government also expects to collect an additional Rs 6,000 crore annually in to the corpus.

However, since under existing dispensation the states got only a small percentage of the amount, several states were opposed to it. The subject of forestlands and their administrative authority rests with respective states. By the same order, an ad-hoc authority was created which is currently managing the huge amount, languishing in different nationalized banks, lying largely unspent.

The proposed law will set up authorities at the national level as well as the state level to use these funds. As soon as that happens, 90 per cent of the total funds collected so far will be transferred to the states, instead of locking it in funds managed only by the Union government. The remaining 10 per cent will be used for 'meeting the non-recurring and recurring expenditures' of the national authority.

The bill was later referred to a parliamentary standing committee after the oppositions demand. Submitting its recommendations in February, the committee recommended a number of amendments which have now been accepted to by the government.

The amendments include deleting some of environmental services for which credible model to assess their monetary value does not exist while it also provides for prior consultation with states for making a rule under it. Also, they provide for use of monies realised from the user agencies in lieu for forest land diverted in protected areas for voluntary relocation from protected areas.

The governing body of the National Authority which earlier consisted of the Environment Minister and Secretaries from the ministries of Environment, Finance, Rural Development, Agriculture, Panchayati Raj will also have those from the ministries of Space and Earth Sciences as well. The number of expert members on the panel has also been increased from two to five.

Other amendments like provisions providing for prior consultation with state Governments regarding new legislation as well as including an expert on tribal matters or representative of tribal community as a member in both steering committee and executive committee of a State Authority, show the government reaching out to the various stakeholders in the process.

The government believes most of these should not face concentrated opposition in parliament. "The Bill will be tabled in the Parliament in the coming session. We hope that all parties will support it," environment minister Prakash Javadekar said.