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| Thick haze blankets the Hoang Quoc Viet road in Hanoi__Photo: VNA |
All emission-discharging facilities would have to pay emission charge at the rate of VND 3 million (USD 125) per year, according to a draft decree on environmental protection charge for exhaust emissions designed by the Ministry of Finance (MOF).
Particularly for those subject to emission monitoring, in addition of the annual charge of VND 3 million, they would also be required to pay a variable charge at a rate of VND 500-800 (USD 21-33) per each ton of particulate matter, nitrogen oxides (NOx), sulfur oxides (SOx) and carbon monoxide (CO).
As proposed in the draft, charge payers would be all emission-discharging facilities such as those engaged in steel production and metallurgy; inorganic chemical, inorganic fertilizer, and chemical pesticide production, oil refinery and petrochemical production; waste recycling and treatment; thermal power; and cement production.
The fixed charge might be paid on a quarterly, monthly or annual basis. As for the variable charge, quarterly, charge payers would make a declaration on environmental protection charge for exhaust emissions and submit it to charge collectors by the 10th of the first month of the subsequent quarter.
If the draft is approved, the state budget revenue will annually increase by around VND 1,200 billion (USD 49,991,640). Such amounts would be spent for addressing air pollution in areas where exist pollutant-discharging facilities.
According to the MOF, the whole country has about 5.1 million automobiles and a large number of motorbikes daily discharging large volumes of emissions. Nearly 120,000 industrial production facilities, including 138 facilities seriously polluting the environment have not been completely treated under the plan specified in Decision 1788/QD-TTg.- (VLLF)
