Scheme of Assistance for Environment Protection Measures: Scheme for assistance to Environment Management

What is the Scheme for assistance to Environment Management?

Scheme for assistance to Environment Management is Scheme 1 of the Scheme of Assistance for Environment Protection Measures, notified by the Industries and Mines Department, Government of Gujarat, under the Gujarat Industrial Policy 2020. Government Resolution No. GID-102020-326811-G dated 1 September 2020 notified the parent scheme, which came into force on 7 August 2020 for a period of five years. The Industries Commissionerate administers it.

The parent scheme has two components. Scheme 1, covered here, gives a capital subsidy on plant and machinery that reduces pollution at source. Scheme 2 encourages green practices and environmental audits for MSMEs, and has its own application form and checklist.

The policy reasoning is set out in the Gujarat Industrial Policy 2020 document itself: industrial development in a state as industrialised as Gujarat has to be built on optimum use of natural resources, and the state wants to decouple environmental degradation from economic growth. Rather than only penalising pollution, the policy pays part of the capital cost of preventing it.

How much the scheme pays

According to the scheme details published by the Industries Commissionerate, assistance per project is:

Both ceilings apply per project during the operative period of the scheme.

Who is eligible for the Environment Management assistance?

Units that can apply

• The industry or unit is registered under the relevant industrial laws in Gujarat.
• The unit is engaged in manufacturing or production activities.
• The unit complies with existing environmental regulations and standards; in practice, valid GPCB consent to establish and consent to operate.
• The unit is undertaking a project focused on environmental protection measures of the kind the scheme lists.

Both MSMEs and large projects are covered, at different rates. MSMEs get the higher rate because the same effluent treatment or heat recovery equipment is a much larger share of a small unit's balance sheet.

Who cannot apply or is not eligible

• Individuals, households, housing societies and residential welfare bodies cannot apply. This is an industrial capital subsidy.
• A trading, retail or pure services establishment that is not engaged in manufacturing or production is not eligible.
• A unit that is not compliant with environmental regulations is not eligible; the scheme rewards units that go beyond compliance, not units that are catching up on it.
• A unit that applies more than six months after completing the activity or project is not eligible.
• Common Environmental Infrastructure Facilities, such as a common effluent treatment plant or a common multiple effect evaporator, are not covered here. The Gujarat Industrial Policy 2020 funds those separately at 40% of project cost up to Rs 50 crore, and the Industries Commissionerate publishes a distinct CETP guideline for them.
• Green Estate development, zero liquid discharge equipment and common boiler projects likewise sit under their own components of the policy rather than under Scheme 1.

What is an eligible environment management project?

Two activity heads carry assistance under Scheme 1.

Cleaner production technology in place of an existing process. The word "replace" matters. Eligible measures are substitution and optimisation of raw materials, reduction of water consumption, reduction of energy consumption, and reduction of waste generation. A dyeing unit that switches to a low-liquor-ratio machine, a foundry that replaces a furnace with a lower-emission one, or a chemical unit that redesigns a process to cut solvent use are the kind of cases the head is written for.

Any other environment management project with clean, efficient and innovative pollution control equipment. This is the residual head, at a lower rate for MSMEs to 25% instead of 35%, and it covers end-of-pipe equipment rather than a change in the process itself.

Assistance is calculated on the cost of plant and machinery, so civil work, land, consultancy and running costs do not attract subsidy under this component.

What documents are required?

The Industries Commissionerate publishes both the Scheme-1 application form and the Scheme-1 checklist on its Industrial Policy 2020 page, along with the separate Scheme-2 form for green practices and environmental audits.

How to apply for the Environment Management assistance

1. Complete the eligible activity; install the cleaner production technology or the pollution control equipment and commission it. Assistance is reimbursement-based, so the spend comes first.
2. Download and fill the Application form for Scheme-1 Assistance to Environment Management from the Industrial Policy 2020 page of ic.gujarat.gov.in.
3. Attach every document on the Scheme-1 checklist — unit registration, GPCB consents, the project report, the plant and machinery invoices with payment proof, and the chartered accountant's certificate of expenditure.
4. Submit the completed form with documents to the Industries Commissionerate at Udyog Bhavan, Gandhinagar, or to the District Industries Centre for the district where the unit is located.
5. File it within six months from the date of completion of the activity or project. This is the hard deadline in the scheme.
6. Respond to any scrutiny queries and allow the inspection of the installed equipment when the department asks for it.
7. Wait for the State Level supported Committee to sanction the assistance, after which the Industries Commissionerate disburses it.

How to check the status of your application

Gujarat does not run a dedicated public status tracker for this offline scheme. The practical route is:

1. Keep the inward acknowledgement issued when the file is submitted at the Industries Commissionerate or the District Industries Centre.
2. Follow up with the General Manager of your District Industries Centre, who holds the district-level file and coordinates inspection.
3. Escalate to the Industries Commissionerate at Udyog Bhavan, Gandhinagar, if the file has been recommended and is awaiting SLEC consideration.

Why applications get rejected

• Filed after six months from completion of the activity. This is the single most avoidable failure.
• Unit not environmentally compliant: expired or missing GPCB consent to operate.
• Trading or non-manufacturing activity. The unit must be engaged in manufacturing or production.
• Civil work, land or consultancy loaded into the claim. Assistance is computed on the cost of plant and machinery.
• Equipment that adds capacity rather than replacing a process, where the claim is made under the cleaner-production head.
• Wrong component. A common effluent treatment plant, a zero liquid discharge installation, a green estate project or a common boiler belongs to a different component of the policy with its own rate, ceiling and guideline.
• No chartered accountant certificate for the capital expenditure claimed.
• Duplicate claim. Assistance already drawn under another State Government scheme for the same plant and machinery will not be paid again.

Key dates and the wider environment package

• 7 August 2020. The Scheme of Assistance for Environment Protection Measures comes into force.
• 1 September 2020; GR No. GID-102020-326811-G issued.
• 6 August 2025: end of the notified five-year operative period.
• Six months from completion of the activity, the deadline for filing an application.

Read alongside the rest of the Gujarat Industrial Policy 2020 environment package, Scheme 1 is the small-ticket instrument. The policy also provides for Common Environmental Infrastructure Facilities such as common effluent treatment plants, waste management systems, common spray dryers and common multiple effect evaporators at 40% of project cost up to Rs 50 crore, with combined central and state support capped at 75% of total fixed capital investment; up to 50% capital subsidy on zero liquid discharge equipment up to Rs 75 lakh for units achieving at least 50% waste recovery as certified by GPCB; Green Estate development at 25% of project cost up to Rs 25 crore, plus up to 75% of the cost of a site master plan for relocating or retrofitting polluting units, capped at Rs 80 lakh; and a common boiler project by an SPV of at least 10 MSMEs at 35% for solid fuel or 50% for cleaner fuel, up to Rs 2 crore.

Gujarat has since published the Viksit Gujarat Industrial Policy 2026 on the Industries Commissionerate website, and no extension notification for the environment protection scheme appears on the Industrial Policy 2020 page. A unit planning a purchase on the strength of this subsidy should confirm the current position with the Industries Commissionerate first.

Where to get help

• Industries Commissionerate: Udyog Bhavan, Sector 11, Gandhinagar 382010, Gujarat. The sanctioning and disbursing office. The contact page at ic.gujarat.gov.in/ic-contact.aspx carries the current desk numbers.
• General Manager, District Industries Centre: the district office that receives the application, inspects the installation and forwards the recommendation.
• Gujarat Pollution Control Board: for consent to establish, consent to operate and the certification a claim depends on.

The Industries Commissionerate has not published a dedicated toll-free helpline for this scheme, so use the departmental contact page rather than any number offered by an agent. There is no fee for filing an application under this scheme.