Uttarakhand Biodiversity Board serves notice to Dabur, Patanjali

DEHRADUN: The Uttarakhand Biodiversity Board has sought tax ranging from 0.1% to 0.5% from nearly 600 industries for using natural resources in the hill state. The

DEHRADUN: The Uttarakhand Biodiversity Board has sought tax ranging from 0.1% to 0.5% from nearly 600 industries for using natural resources in the hill state. The board has served notices to the industries, including Ayurveda giant Dabur and its rival Baba Ramdev’s Patanjali.

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While Dabur has been asked to pay approximately Rs 20 lakh, Patanjali and its sister concern, Divya Pharmacy, were served notices to together pay Rs 10 crore.

Dabur, which has an annual turnover of Rs 8,600 crore, has two production units in Pantnagar industrial area. Patanjali, with a turnover of Rs 5,000 crore, has a food park in Haridwar that makes an array of products - ghee, biscuits, skin care, beverages, among others. Divya Pharmacy makes Ayurvedic medicines.

“The notices to various industries were served six months back asking them to pay cess for the financial year 2014-15. As per our calculations, Patanjali is the biggest payer,” said Dhananjay Prasad, deputy director of the board, on Wednesday.

Officials said that Patanjali did not initially respond to the notice but is now negotiating via a Delhi-based legal firm under the assess benefit sharing (ABS) protocol. ABS is a procedure under the biodiversity act that gives an industry a chance to negotiate before settling dues.

Rakesh Sah, chairman of the board, said only 10 companies so far have settled taxes for FY 201415. Uttarakhand has 3.47 million hectares of forest cover. The board says that food processing, skin care and Ayurveda industries use up natural resources but pay nothing, which is mandatory for them under the biodiversity act.

“We have identified total 3,000 industries in the state. The rest of them will soon get notices” Sah told HT.