Read the given passage and answer the questions that follow:

Climate change is something we are worried about. There have been targets set for various countries and India is a front-runner here. Companies are working towards net zero, which means that as their business operations emit carbon-laden gases, they will either reduce these pollutants to nil or fully compensate for them by absorbing the same quantity from the atmosphere. Awareness of this has spread. But another question is whether the government can do something to earn revenue here.

The government has been looking at different ways of augmenting its revenues, as mere tax buoyancy cannot be relied upon; growth levels can vary and abnormal situations seem to arise almost every year. As options are explored, existing taxpayers usually end up being taxed even more. Given that climate action is a big thing today, there is room to think of taxing companies that pollute the environment. With the country going digital and most business units GST registered, we have records of what each firm does. This universe of companies can serve as the taxable base on which a green tax can be levied. Even for a rudimentary activity like farming, we have knowledge of the pollution caused, and this tax can be imposed at the mandi level, the official point of sale.

There are different ways of arriving at the amount of pollution emitted by every business activity. Manufacturing and construction top the list, broadly, with services next. More specifically, fuel-based industries top the list of polluters. Think of coal, oil, gas and petro-products, and of energy suppliers that use fossil-fuel inputs. Other large polluters include industries like transport, chemicals (especially fertilizers), technology, processed food and fashion. Services with no factories add to ecological atrophy with their buildings and servers that add to global warming. The fancy glass-front edifices of modern commercial complexes that use much energy to keep cool are other examples. 

In short, every economic activity adds its bit to pollution and can be brought under the tax net. The Centre only needs to commission research agencies to independently evaluate the emissions of all industries and set standards for the same. This done, there is scope for taxing industries on the basis of the pollution caused by their business activity.

India’s top 4,000 odd companies had a combined turnover of roughly ₹100 trillion in 2021-22. Intuitively, all these sales can be linked to pollution. Our green tax rate can then be defined along a scale and imposed on all industries. On an average, if the green tax rate is, say, 0.5% of turnover, the government can rake in an amount of ₹50,000 crore annually, which can then be used to finance budget spending. Since the government has already spoken of issuing green bonds for projects that are environmentally compliant, a green tax would actually complement this effort.