No proposal to impose carbon tax on industry under consideration: Mushahidullah

ISLAMABAD, Feb 22 (APP):Federal Minister for Climate Change Mushahidullah Khan Thursday said neither carbon tax was currently imposed on any industrial sector in the country not any proposal in that regard was under consideration.
Answering a question in the Senate, the minister said the Ministry of Climate Change would be launching a study with the support of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), to evaluate application on ‘carbon pricing’ in Pakistan.
He said the study would examine if such a price/tax on carbon suited Pakistan and if the country could benefit from such a tax in terms of climate change mitigation and achievement of the Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC) and for attracting international funding/support for climate action.
Replying to another question, he said three major earthquakes had occurred in the country during last five years, two in Mashkhel and Awaran in Balochistan in 2013 and one in October 2015.
He said during the last five years, the federal and provincial governments paid Rs 16,409.40 million to the respective provincial / state / regional authorities for payment of compensation to the earthquake victims.
Replying to another query, the minister said the Emergency Relief Cell (ERC) of the Cabinet Division had been merged into National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) with the approval of the prime minister.
He also informed the Senate that after the 18th Constitutional Amendment, the Pakistan Environmental Protection Agency (Pak-EPA) was mandated for protection, conservation and rehabilitation of environment in Islamabad Capital Territory (ICT).
He said the Pakistan Environmental Protection Agency, Islamabad had recently planned a 30-day survey of ambient air quality monitoring of sectors 1-9 and I-10, and Kahuta Triangle industrial areas.
It had started monitoring from February 1, 2018 by using its state of the art mobile automatic ambient air quality monitoring station and high volume air samplers for suspended particle matter (SPM), he added.
To a question, Mushahidullah said a programme had been approved with an estimated cost of Rs 3.652 billion to plant 100 million trees over a period of five years (2016-17 to 2020-21).
Under the programme, the planting activity was being carried out in all the four provinces, Gilgit-Baltistan, Azad Jammu & Kashmir (AJK) and Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) in different ecological locations, he added.
The minister said an amount of Rs 605.172 million had been allocated, out of which Rs 242.068 was released and Rs 240.424 million spent during 2017-18 on the tree plantation project.