Author: Aditya Kalra
NEW DELHI (Reuters) – South Korea's LG and Samsung have sued the Indian government for revoking a policy that has increased spending on e-waste recyclers and joined other major companies with other large companies to compete for the country's environmental rules, citing commercial impacts.
The lawsuits will face other challenges on Tuesday, marking an escalation of the stumbling block involving foreign companies and the government's stance on waste management practices.
LG and Samsung did not respond to Reuters' request for comment. The Indian Ministry of Environment did not respond.
India is the third largest e-waste generator after China and the United States, but the government said only 43% of e-waste was recycled last year, and at least 80% of the industry included informal waste distributors.
Daikin, India's Havells and Tata's Voltas have sued Modi's government.
Samsung and LG lobby against the decision to determine the price of floors to cope with recyclers, and New Delhi said it needs to bring more people into the industry and increase investment in electronic waste recycling.
LG’s documents filed in the Delhi High Court were not public but reviewed by Reuters on Monday, saying the pricing rules “do not consider simply by cheating companies and taxing them in the name of “polluters’ pay principle”, and the (government) goal is not achieved.”
A 550-page court application from April 16 showed: “If the authorities cannot regulate informal departments, then this is a failure of enforcement.”
“Price regulation is not essentially in line with the purpose of environmental protection,” Samsung said in a 345-page document seen by Reuters, saying it is “an expected to have a significant financial impact.”
India's new rules require a minimum payment of Rs 22 (25 cents) per kilogram to recycle consumer electronics. Electronics said that would roughly triple its cost and benefit recyclers at their expense.
The LG court application showed that the document wrote to the Indian government in August saying the proposed rates were “very high and should be lowered” and that the government should allow market forces to determine prices.
Samsung wrote to Modi's office, saying the new price is “5-15 times the price currently paid.”
Research firm Redseer said India's recycling rate is still low compared to the United States, where they have the highest recycling rate of five times and China at least 1.5 times higher.
