I am an in-house lawyer specializing in compliance, legal operations, and compliance-related litigation, Policy matters, Labour, IR, and environmental laws with hands-on experience in contract drafting and negotiation.
The Central Govt amended the HWM Rules 2016 in Oct 2023 and a new Chapter -VII has been added prescribing certain new requirements/compliances pertaining to used oil specifically as EPR ( Extended Producer Responsibility). This new amendment/Chapter became effective on 1st April 2024 and the Govt has also developed a separate portal for this. This amendment demarcated the compliances by all stakeholders involved in this entire chain such as producer, importer, re-cycler, collection agent, bulk generators, etc. of used oil including the filing of quarterly, and annual returns, etc. Rule 43 provides that the provisions relating to hazardous wastes under these rules shall also apply to utilization and management of used oil under this Chapter. Now the question is whether the stakeholders need to comply with the other provisions also apart from this new chapter in terms of maintaining records, filing returns, etc. Given the fact that this chapter is specific to used oil compliance and the stakeholder is only generating used oil as an HWM. Will it not be the duplication of compliance?