Tag Archive for 'e-waste'


LIRNEasia’s Mobile Benchmarks (South Asia and Southeast Asia) and Broadband Benchmarks Report for October 2008 has been released. Click HERE for more information.




Small Victory for LIRNEasia: Sri Lanka’s Supreme Court issues Interim Order against Tax on Mobile Phones and Telecom Towers

by
Chanuka Wattegama
on September 23, 2008
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Considering five fundamental rights applications yesterday (Sept 22), the Supreme Court issued an interim order against the implementation of the Environment Tax, reported Lanka Dissent. The petitioners were Ven. Maduluwawe Sobhitha Thera, Ven. Kiniyawala Palitha Thera, Telshan Network and Swarnavahini.

The SC ordered the immediate suspension of the gazette notification announcing the new tax, and fixed December 01st as the next day of hearing.

A party that opposed not the idea of Environment tax, but the manner it was irrationally applied on mobile usage (not ownership) LIRNEasia takes pride in presenting some of its previous blog posts on the subject below.

Oct 30, 2007: “Green” tax to be imposed on mobiles?

April 10, 2008: Is mobile phone a polluter?

Aug 03, 2008: Taxing poor to clear the e-waste of rich

Aug 14,…

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Sri Lanka: Udaya Gammanpila says Environmental Levy does not burden public

by
Chanuka Wattegama
on August 19, 2008
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Responding to Rohan Samarajiva’s views on newly implemented Environmental levy in Lankadeepa last week, Central Environmental Authority Chairman Udaya Gammanpila calls it essential and the ‘first progressive tax’ in Sri Lanka. Assuring it does not burden public, he says any tax can be initially unpopular but the impact should be seen in long term. (Lankadeepa, August 19, 2008)

These are his points in brief:

1. If not for the Environmental levy, the government has to find money to address environmental issues by increasing either VAT or customs charges. That will raise prices in general. It is unfair. Why should villagers who have never seen a mobile phone contribute for its removal whenever they buy flour to make rotis? Instead we have introduced a tax only on pollutants.…

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Sri Lanka: Taxing poor to clear the e-waste of rich

by
Chanuka Wattegama
on August 3, 2008
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Two thousand and five hundred years ago, Gautama Buddha correlated tax collectors to bees. A righteous ruler, said he, taking the Liccavis as an example, collects tax without making it a burden on people, in the same was a bee collects honey from a flower (without damaging it).

Such wise words were not always heeded.

Four new levies, reported Financial Times today, will come into force this month under the Environmental Conservation Levy Act No. 8 of 2008.

All communication towers will be charged Rs 50,000, according to the Central Environmental Authority (CEA) Chairman Udaya Gammanpila, who explained it was done to ‘induce telecommunication companies to share the towers’.

Sharing telecom towers is good, but if Mr. Chairman thinks that happens just by forcing them to pay for erecting…

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Is mobile phone a polluter?

by
Chanuka Wattegama
on April 10, 2008
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mobile-phone-polluter-jpg.jpg

Do mobile phones pollute the environment? Sri Lanka’s Environment Minister Champika Ranawaka thinks so. That was why he wants to impose a so called ‘environment tax’ on mobiles, (in fact all phones, but the above newspaper article focuses on mobiles) at two points, when you purchase it and use it. This is on top of the rest of the tax components the mobile users already have to pay.

No information to that mobile usage is a serious threat to Sri Lanka’s environment. Whatever the little information we possess suggest the opposite. E-waste recycling companies claim the number of mobile phones added to e-waste is negligible. When Dialog Telekom initiated a well publicised effort to collect used mobile phones, they could collect not even 100 – much less…

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Beginnings of action on e-waste in Sri Lanka

by
Rohan Samarajiva
on December 4, 2007
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LANKA BUSINESS ONLINE - LBO

Sri Lanka’s top celco Dialog Telekom wants to collect a million old phones and recycle them in the next two years in an initiative that will keep dangerous heavy metals from contaminating the environment, officials said.

Phone batteries for example have heavy metals such a lead, nickel and cadmium. Dialog is collecting old phones and accessories from today.

“In Sri Lanka there are about 10 million mobile phones, and mobile phones become obsolete in two to three years,” says Michael de Soyza from Dialog who heads the project.

“Though some are handed down to friends and siblings, eventually they are discarded and are disposed of through the garbage collection system.”

Starting today, at 14 Dialog offices, old phones would be collected. For every phone handed…

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