Ministry of Finance wants to collect emission fees, budget adds 1,200 billion/year

Charge to reduce pollution

The Ministry of Finance has just sent a draft Decree regulating environmental protection fees (EPF) for emissions to ministries, branches, localities and businesses for comments.

According to the Ministry of Finance, in our country, along with socio-economic development, air quality in big cities, some industrial zones and craft villages is increasingly declining, seriously affecting public health, causing damage to the economy and threatening the environment.

Currently, the country has about 5.1 million cars and a large number of motorbikes in circulation and dozens of complexes, in which many projects and types of bauxite, iron and steel, petrochemical, and power plants are concentrated, discharging large amounts of industrial emissions every day; there are nearly 120,000 industrial production facilities, of which 138 cause serious environmental pollution; about 110,000 construction enterprises, engaged in the construction of houses, apartment buildings, new urban areas, bridges and roads, and the exploitation and transportation of construction materials. These facilities generate large amounts of industrial emissions and dust, negatively affecting the environment.

"Meanwhile, most organizations and individuals that discharge waste causing air pollution are not fully aware of their responsibilities in protecting the air environment," the Ministry of Finance assessed.

Thermal power plants will have to pay additional emissions fees.

Therefore, according to this agency, the research and development of the Decree on environmental protection fees for emissions is necessary to institutionalize the policies of the Party and the Government, perfect the legal system of fees, in accordance with practical requirements and to gradually raise environmental protection awareness of organizations, individuals discharging waste and the whole society.

The Ministry of Finance believes that the environmental protection fee is a new policy. In order to have a convincing basis for determining and calculating the amount of fees payable, the sources of emissions subject to the fee must be those that have been regulated by specialized laws and can determine the volume of environmental pollutants in the emissions, which serves as a basis for determining the amount of fees payable for the sources of emissions.

Therefore, the Ministry of Finance submitted to the Government that, in the immediate future, the fee payers will only be the facilities discharging emissions specified in column 2 of Appendix XXIX issued with Decree 08/2022/ND-CP.

These are iron and steel production, metallurgy; basic inorganic chemicals, inorganic fertilizers and nitrogen compounds; petrochemical refining; recycling and treatment of domestic solid waste; production of coke, coal gas; thermal power; cement,...

How much is the fee?

The Ministry of Finance said: In field surveys and work in localities such as Hai Duong, Quang Ninh, Binh Duong, Tay Ninh, the Department of Natural Resources and Environment of these provinces all proposed regulations on fee collection similar to Decree No. 53/2020/ND-CP.

To ensure consistency and facilitate fee collection and payment; limit increased costs in fee collection and payment, the Ministry of Finance proposes that the Government stipulate the agency collecting environmental protection fees for emissions similar to the agency collecting environmental protection fees for industrial wastewater as prescribed in Decree No. 53/2020/ND-CP.

That is the Department of Natural Resources and Environment, the Department of Natural Resources and Environment collects environmental protection fees for emissions from facilities discharging emissions in the management area. Based on the actual management situation, the Department of Natural Resources and Environment reports to the People's Committee of the province or centrally-run city to assign areas and collection subjects to organize the collection of environmental protection fees for emissions from facilities discharging emissions in the area.

The Ministry of Finance submitted to the Government a regulation on the establishment of a fee consisting of two parts: a fixed fee collected for all facilities discharging emissions, to ensure the cost of treating substances other than the four substances (Total dust, NOx, SOx, CO) and a variable fee collected additionally for facilities that must monitor emissions (collected for the four substances: Total dust, NOx, SOx, CO).

For fixed fees: “Fixed fee for facilities discharging emissions: 3,000,000 VND/year. Fixed fees are determined annually, and can also be paid quarterly.

Regarding variable fees, based on the proposal of the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment, the Ministry of Finance submitted to the Government a regulation on variable fees for 4 environmental pollutants (Total dust, NOx, SOx, CO) of 500-800 VND/ton.

The environmental protection fee for emissions is a new revenue source. The Ministry of Finance expects that implementing this policy will increase the state budget by about VND1,200 billion/year. This amount of money will help to overcome the air pollution situation in the locality where the source of pollution is located.

Proposal to have motorbikes periodically inspected for emissions: Should only old and worn-out motorbikes be inspected? The Ministry of Transport has proposed that motorbikes in circulation must be periodically inspected for emissions. According to traffic experts, inspecting all motorbikes is inappropriate.

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