The Hindu Business Line : Failure to return old equipment — Battery makers to turn heat on dealers

Worried over the dealers' act of continuously ignoring their plea to recollect old batteries, the manufacturers have now decided not to pay them the incentives.

This follows the Government's decision to implement the Batteries (Management and Handling) Rules (BMHR), 2001, strictly. BMHR stipulates that it is the responsibility of manufacturers, importers, assemblers and re-conditioners to get the old, expired batteries from the consumers.

The rules have been enacted to prevent crude re-processing of lead from lead acid batteries used in vehicles and UPS and thus avoid environmental pollution. The objective of BMHR is to ensure that lead is processed only through eco-friendly measures. Though the battery manufacturing industry agrees that the BMHR is a "comprehensive legislation enacted by the Ministry of Environment and Forests", it has not been implemented with vigour.

"We all thought that the public response to this would be tremendous. Unfortunately, nothing has moved beyond the enactment state," said an Indian Battery Manufacturers' Association (IBMA) source.

When contacted, Mr S. Ramachandra, Executive Vice-President, Amar Raja Batteries Ltd, told Business Line: "The public are not aware of the rules."

But the source in IBMA, the apex body of battery manufacturers, said they were unable to implement the rules mainly as the dealers were ignoring the Government order. "Moreover, the pollution control boards are threatening to act against us for no fault of ours."

"But our dealers seldom return the old batteries despite reminders. They get more if they pass on the old batteries to unauthorised smelters," said Mr Ramachandra.

The old batteries can help in recovering as much as 99 per cent of the lead through smelting. "But careless handling by unauthorised smelters leads to pollution of air, water and soil," he said.

Moreover, a dealer returning old batteries to the manufacturer has to maintain records, pay sales tax and other applicable levy. "These are all considered too burdensome that they find it better to pass it on to unauthorised smelters," said the IBMA source.

According to Mr Ramachandra, this has given rise to a parallel economy. "The dealer does not have to do any paper work. And he also gets more money than what we manufacturers pay him."

Currently, while manufacturers pay the dealers Rs 120 for returning a car battery, scrap merchants pay them as much as Rs 200 for these old, expired ones.

Currently, hardly five per cent of the replaced batteries are handed over to the manufacturers. "This is the case even with the Government departments," the IBMA source said.

Mr Ramachandra said: "As against a demand of 1.1 lakh tonnes, domestic production is only 30,000 tonnes. The huge supply gap is made good by imports. If proper recycling of lead is done, then imports can be brought down to just 10,000 tonnes."

Battery manufacturers have now begun to insist in their guarantee cards that old batteries must be returned. "We have also provided the Government a list of dealers who are not returning old batteries. If the Government acts on them just to show it is serious besides cracking down on unauthorised smelters, things will start moving," IBMA source said.

But the manufacturers now feel that their ultimatum to the dealers to return old batteries or face a cut in the incentives could work.

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