Chinese companies fined US$154 million for environmental offences
Beijing’s ‘zero tolerance’ policy sees total fines rise 48 per cent in first 10 months of the year
Companies in China accused of violating environmental regulations paid fines totalling 1.02 billion yuan (US$154 million) in the first 10 months of 2017, up 48 per cent from a year earlier, the environment ministry said on Wednesday.
As part of a campaign to “normalise compliance” when it comes to protecting the environment, China has promised zero tolerance for firms guilty of offences such as illegally dumping waste, exceeding mandatory emissions caps or tampering with monitoring equipment.
The country’s new environmental protection law, in force since the start of 2015, allows the authorities to fine people or enterprises breaking the law on a daily basis until they rectify their problems, and gives regulators the authority to launch criminal charges.
The Ministry of Environmental Protection said in a notice that 32,227 cases had been handled in the first 10 months, more than twice the number recorded in 2016. The number of “administrative detentions”, in which an official or executive was detained for continuing to violate regulations, jumped 161 per cent to 7,093, it said.
