The Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB), in September 2026, issued guidelines for levy of registration and annual processing fees for use of the Centralised Online Portal established under the Solid Waste Management (SWM) Rules, 2026. The SWM Rules, 2026, notified by the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change on January 27, 2026, came into force from April 1, 2026 and provide for a centralised portal for registration, annual returns, reporting and compliance monitoring.
The fee mechanism applies to obligated entities required to register and file annual returns through the portal, including Bulk Waste Generators (BWGs), operators of solid waste processing facilities, entities undertaking sorting at Material Recovery Facilities, specified industrial units and Waste-to-Energy plants, RDF/MRF-cum-RDF plants and sanitary landfill operators. The portal-use fee charged by CPCB does not apply to local bodies, State Governments or the Central Government.
The fees are intended to support the development, operation, maintenance and upgradation of the centralised portal, registration and onboarding, processing of quarterly and annual returns, compliance monitoring, digital reporting and maintenance of national-level databases and dashboards. The guidelines also define key categories such as BWGs, facilities, MRFs, RDF, sanitary landfilling and Waste-to-Energy.
