Scheme of Assistance for Common Environment Infrastructure: Financial Assistance for Common Environmental Infrastructure Facilities

What is the Scheme of Assistance for Common Environment Infrastructure?

Scheme of Assistance for Common Environment Infrastructure is a capital grant scheme of the Industries and Mines Department, Government of Gujarat, notified through Government Resolution No. GID/102020/326692/G dated 1 September 2020 under Gujarat Industrial Policy 2020. Scheme-1 of that resolution provides financial assistance to common environmental infrastructure facilities. The shared effluent, waste and recycling plants that let clusters of small factories meet pollution norms they could never meet individually.

According to the guideline published by the Industries Commissionerate, the scheme came into force on 7 August 2020 and was to remain in force for five years, up to 6 August 2025. The Office of the Industries Commissioner, Udyog Bhavan, Gandhinagar, receives proposals; a Screening Committee scrutinises them; and a State Level supported Committee takes the sanction decision.

This is emphatically not a citizen benefit. There is no individual application, no personal subsidy and no household eligibility. The money goes to institutions that build shared environmental infrastructure for other industries or for the public.

How much assistance is available?

The guideline sets the quantum as up to 40% of eligible fixed capital investment in the project, maximum up to Rs 50 crore. For projects of government departments, government agencies or authorities, state and central government PSUs and boards, the committee may sanction up to 80%, still within the Rs 50 crore cap. An applicant institution is eligible for a total of Rs 50 crore across one or more projects during the policy period.

The percentage is not flat. It steps down in slabs as the project gets larger:

The guideline's own worked example: a project with Rs 80 crore of eligible fixed capital investment gets 40% of Rs 10 crore (Rs 4 crore), plus 30% of Rs 20 crore (Rs 6 crore), plus 20% of Rs 20 crore (Rs 4 crore), plus 10% of Rs 25 crore (Rs 2.5 crore), plus 5% of Rs 5 crore (Rs 0.25 crore); Rs 16.75 crore, or 20.93% of eligible FCI. A Rs 10 crore project draws the full 40%; a Rs 75 crore project draws about 22%.

Who is eligible for this scheme?

Institutions that can apply:

• Any industries association, any enterprise (except for captive use) or any firm registered under the Societies Act, the Trust Act or the Companies Act.
• GIDC, boards, corporations, special purpose vehicles, PSUs, municipal corporations, nagarpalikas and urban development authorities.
• In every case the applicant institution must create environment protection facilities for the use of its members, or for the use of industrial enterprises or the public — not for itself alone.

Who cannot apply:

• Individuals, proprietors and households. There is no personal benefit under this scheme at all.
• A single enterprise building a plant for its own captive use. The exclusion is written into the eligibility clause.
• An institution that has not followed the mandatory tender process. The guideline is blunt: an institution which does not follow the transparent competitive procedure is not eligible for any assistance.
• An institution appointing a TPQA agency related to the execution agency of the project.

What projects are eligible?

The guideline lists the qualifying projects:

• New common effluent treatment plants, including collection, storage and treatment of effluent.
• Augmentation or technology upgrade of existing CETPs.
• Conveyance pipelines for safe disposal of treated effluent.
• Recycling of treated waste water for industrial and other use.
• Common spray drying systems for effluent.
• Common multiple effect evaporators and Mechanical Vapour Recompression Evaporation.
• Common reverse osmosis plants and common drum decontamination facilities.
• Automation of an existing facility.
• Monitoring systems for water, air, land and noise contamination, and online continuous water and air emission monitoring with connectivity to the GPCB server.
• Common waste management projects: treatment, storage and disposal facilities (TSDF); incinerators for hazardous waste and concentrated effluent; waste collection, pre-preparation and treatment for co-processing in power and steel industries; recovery, reuse and recycling of CETP and TSDF waste by industries associations; plasma thermal destruction and waste-to-energy; common solvent recovery; common spent acid recovery; environment-friendly use of gypsum and iron sludge; recovery from e-waste, electroplating waste and photography waste; recycling of hazardous waste from ship breaking; waste recycling to useful by-products such as vermicompost and handmade paper from paper mill waste; and PET bottle recycling using indigenous waste.
• Any other environment management project approved by the State Level supported Committee.

What counts as eligible fixed capital investment?

Eligible fixed capital investment is the capital invested in the building, new plant and machinery, utilities and other related infrastructure required for the common environment infrastructure project, as approved by the SLEC.

Excluded: land, land development, preliminary and pre-operative expenses and consultancy fees. Only expenditure incurred after the date the application was submitted in the prescribed form with the DPR is eligible, and eligible building and civil cost is limited to the prevailing Schedule of Rates of government departments where applicable.

How to apply for common environment infrastructure assistance

1. Prepare the Detailed Project Report. The DPR must cover the institution's background, the promoters and their technical background, companies the promoters are associated with, their experience in setting up or operating environment projects, the need for the project with any study report, a detailed process diagram with description, P&ID and layout, the types of industries to be covered with their waste generation and present disposal, a technical note on the existing and proposed treatment process for an upgrade or automation, means of finance and project cost, the plant and machinery needed with costs, the benefits envisaged and the implementation schedule.
2. Apply in form AF-CEIS-01 to the Office of the Industries Commissioner with the DPR and the documents listed in checklist CL-CEIS-01. Note that eligible expenditure begins only from this submission date.
3. Run the mandatory tender process. Advertise in widely published Gujarati and English daily newspapers and invite two-bid tenders from contractors, machinery manufacturers or turnkey project executing companies. E-tendering is allowed, but the newspaper advertisement is still compulsory. The advertisement must state the quality and parameters of the effluent and the treated effluent.
4. Evaluate bids technically first. Bidders present before an internal committee of technically qualified persons; technically unviable bids are rejected outright; commercial bids are opened only for technically qualified bidders; and the technical bid must carry more weight than the commercial bid. Keep the entire record as proof. Non-tender items must stay within 10% of eligible investment, with no single bill above Rs 5 lakh. Imported machinery is exempt from tendering and is valued at the bill of entry.
5. Appoint a Third Party Quality Assurance agency from the approved or suggestive list of a central or state government department, board or corporation. The TPQA agency must not be the implementing agency and must not be related to it.
6. Face the Screening Committee and the SLEC. The Screening Committee scrutinises the proposal, may call for more documents, and then recommends it to the State Level supported Committee. The Industries Commissionerate conveys the SLEC's decision.
7. File the claim with the District Industries Centre with all relevant documents and the expenditure details. Officials from the IC or DIC visit the plant, verify assets and expenditure against the sanction letter and report to the IC office. Disbursement follows physical verification and depends on the availability of grant.

How is the assistance disbursed?

Disbursement is made only on expenditure actually incurred on the sanctioned eligible project components, and only after physical verification by the Industries Commissionerate or the District Industries Centre. The guideline is explicit that the IC office disburses as per the availability of grant, so an approved project is not automatically a paid project in the same financial year.

Why do proposals fail?

• No competitive tender. Skipping the newspaper advertisement or the two-bid process makes the institution ineligible for any assistance, not merely for part of it.
• Expenditure incurred before the application. Anything spent before the DPR and form AF-CEIS-01 were filed is out.
• Ineligible heads claimed, land, land development, consultancy fees and preliminary or pre-operative expenses.
• Civil cost above the Schedule of Rates.
• TPQA agency related to the execution agency, which breaks the independence the guideline requires.
• Non-tender items above 10% of eligible investment, or single non-tender bills above Rs 5 lakh.
• Captive use. A plant serving only the applicant's own factory is excluded by the eligibility clause.

Where do institutions go for help?

The guideline names the Joint Commissioner of Industries (IM), Block No. 1, 4th Floor, Udyog Bhavan, Sector 11, Gandhinagar 382 011, on +91 79 23252619, 23252689 and 23252682, with email icim@gujarat.gov.in, icjciim@gujarat.gov.in and icioim@gujarat.gov.in. The guideline, application form AF-CEIS-01 and checklist CL-CEIS-01 are published on the Industries Commissionerate site under the industrial policy schemes page.

The guideline carries a closing note that applicants should read literally: it is issued for smoother and hassle-free implementation of projects, and the decision of the State Level supported Committee is final and binding on the applicant.