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New Delhi, Oct. 31 The Union Government is looking at offering tax sops to developers of energy-efficient buildings, based on a “green” rating mechanism to be developed along with The Energy Research Institute (Teri). A Memorandum of Association is slated to be signed between the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy and Teri on Thursday in this regard.

“We are partnering Teri for developing a rating system for upcoming structures in India. We are contemplating incentives to the developers based on their ratings,” Mr V Subramaniam, Secretary, Ministry of New and Renewable Energy told reporters here. He said the incentives could be in the form of tax breaks in property tax for the proposed structures.

Teri’s Green Rating for Integrated Habitat Assessment (Griha) is a voluntary scheme that will evaluate the environmental performance of a building over its entire life cycle. The mechanism is based on inputs from the Energy Conservation Building Code (ECBC) being implemented by the Government.

“The India-specific rating system would facilitate design, construction, operation and evaluation of environment-friendly buildings. The system would ascertain greenness of new commercial, residential and institutional buildings,” Teri’s Associate Director Ms Mili Majumdar said.

Teri’s Director General, Mr R. K. Pachauri urged the industry to achieve zero net energy use in buildings to meet the challenges of global warming.

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