CHAPTER TWELVE:

Environmental Policies

 

ARTICLE 104- In order to protect the environment and to secure sustainable exploitation of the country’s natural resources the following tasks are to be performed:

A- Exploitation of the country’s natural resources must be undertaken on the basis of their potentialities.  To this end,  government is required to take appropriate measures in order to preserve the balance of the environment through implementation of certain programs such as “ Balancing Domesticated Animals and the Pasture”, “Purging Domesticated Animals from the Forests”, “Provision of Feed and Fuel For Foresters, the Tribal and Rural Inhabitants”, “ Preservation and Conservation of the Basic Resources, and Genetic Reserves”; “Coordinating Integrated Management of the Basic Resources”, and “Institutionalization of Public Participation in Planning, Decision-Making, and Plan Implementation”, while maintaining the productive processes and providing for sustainable exploitation of the natural resources.

The executive by-law of this Item including pertinent environmental criteria shall be proposed jointly by the Department of the Environment and Ministries of “Agriculture” and “Construction Jihad”, and be approved by the Cabinet.

B- In order to strengthen and secure “the non- public organization supporting the environment and natural resources” the financial assistance donated by the real and legal entities to these agents will be considered as tax deductible expenses.  The donations which are to be paid to a special account with the Treasury shall be withdrawn and granted to these institutions according to a by-law to be proposed by the Plan and Budget Organization and the Department of the Environment to the Cabinet for approval, and shall include the maximum amount of the contributions and the terms of granting.

C- To reduce the environmental polluting agents, specially those polluting the country’s natural and water resources, the manufacturing units are obliged to take measures to conform their technical specifications with the environmental criteria, and to reduce the extent of the pollution. To this end, the performance expenditure shall be considered as tax deductible costs for these units.

The units not complying with these provision and whose operations cause pollution and destruction of the environment shall be charged a compensatory fine commensurate with the extent of the inflicted damage; and the proceeds will be settled with the general revenue account and will be spent to implement the environmental rehabilitation programs according to the annual budget bills.  The by-law of this Item including the rate of the charges and their collection and spending procedures shall be prepared by the Department of the Environment and approved by the Cabinet.

D- During the Third Plan, government is required to take appropriate actions in order to reduce the air pollution in cities of Tehran, Mashad, Tabriz, Ahwaz, Arak, Shiraz and Isfahan, to the standards of the World Health Organization.  The executive by-law of this Item is the same by-law of the Note (82) of the Second Economic, Social and Cultural Development of the Islamic Republic of Iran enacted on 12/1/1995.

E- In order to prevent pollution and to improve the marine environment of the Caspian Sea shoreline, government is required to clear the sea’s buffer zone.

F- The following measures shall be taken in order to induce relocation of the production and industrial units, presently located within the limits of the country’s urban areas:

     1- Change of land-use and superstructure-use of the factories in conformity with the municipalities’ criteria.  This objective shall be attained through mutual agreement with the proprietors.

     2- Ministries of “Petroleum”, “Energy” and “Post-Telegraph and Telephone” are required to redeem the royalty, subscription right and other concession license and permits related to the subscription of gas, water, electricity and telephone lines of the units which are to be relocated at just and market values and/or cede the same right to the substituting applicant introduced by the original proprietor, without imposing any new charges.

G- To reduce air pollution in the Greater Tehran Area, the following measures will be taken during the first year of the Third Plan:

      1- All ministries, agencies, the state-owned enterprises and other executive entities that in one way or the other use the general budget are required to take appropriate action aiming at fixing or replacing all defective parts of their polluting vehicles.

      2- The Municipality of Tehran is required to repair and fix its defective vehicles and buses having defective fuel-consuming components.

      3- Renewal of the driving permit for taxis and minibuses shall be permissible on the condition that these vehicles are defect-free with regard to pollution.

     4 - A sum of twenty billion (20,000,000,000) Rials will be allocated each year to the Department of the Environment in order to exclusively provide financial aid to the needy vehicle and motor bike owners in order to assist them with repairing technically defective and polluting parts of their vehicles.

     5- Beginning with the second year of the Third Plan, pollution caused by motorbikes and any other vehicle (of any type) will be considered as an offense, and the violator (the driver) will be convicted and charged a cash penalty of five hundred thousand (500,000) Rials for each time of violation.  The grace period between two violations by the same vehicle will be one week.

ARTICLE 105-  All the large production and service providing projects must, in the process of the feasibility study and before execution, be assessed from the standpoint of their impact on the environment, on the basis of the criteria that will be proposed by the High Council of the Environment and approved by the Cabinet.  The persons in charge of execution of the projects are required to observe findings of the assessment. The Plan and Budget Organization is responsible to monitor proper performance of this Article.

Note:  The Department of the Environment is required to draw up and provide practical and executive guidelines for proper and timely execution of the development and employment-generating projects in the conservation regions in the line with consideration of the environmental protection criteria.