Green Fund Tax to boost Haritha Haram

Hyderabad: The Government of Telangana is all set to impose 'Green Fund Tax' on all sections, including legislators, bureaucrats, government officials, students and also the citizens who use the government services.

This was announced by Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao while replying to a discussion on Haritha Haram in the Assembly on Friday.

The chief minister said that Rs 500 per month would be collected from MPs, MLAs and MLCs while Rs 100 would be deducted from the IAS, IPS and IFS officers' salaries.

The TNGOs and GOs will be paying Rs 25 per month.

Apart from the government staff, the government proposes to collect Rs 1,000 per year from the shops when they come up for renewal of licence. Similarly, Rs 50 would be collected from people who go for registration.

Even students are not exempted from the green tax. A one-time amount from Rs 5 to Rs 100 would be collected from the students from school to professional colleges and the money would be used for Haritha Haram programme.

This would result in the government mopping up revenue of Rs 20 crore to Rs 30 crore per year. This fund, according to the Chief Minister, would be used for developing greenery.

The Chief Minister said that the state government had spent Rs 6,555 crore on Haritha Haram, which had resulted in an increase in the green cover by 3.67 per cent in the State.

The Chief Minister complimented sarpanches for their efforts to save trees in their villages. He said that the 188 reserve forest blocks were created around Hyderabad.

Avenue plantations were taken up in 82,491 km in all types of roads, including Panchayat Raj, R&B and National Highways.