HARSHER PENALTIES

Officials or public workers of local government or organizations in charge of air pollution control who abuse power, neglect their duties or practice favoritism for personal gain, shall be punished according to the Environmental Protection Law and the Civil Servant Law, the draft says.

Those found discharging air pollutants without getting a pollutant discharge permit, exceeding prescribed standards of airborne pollutants, shunning supervision by falsifying data or temporarily suspending production for dealing with on-the-spot inspections will be ordered to stop discharging pollutants, limit or suspend production, and be fined between no less than 100,000 yuan (about 16,340 US dollars) to no more than one million yuan by environmental protection departments of local governments at county level or above.

If the circumstances are serious, law violators will be ordered to close down.

If enterprises are found violating any of the regulations and refuse to make corrections police are entitled to detain the responsible persons, according to the draft amendment.

Enterprises which produce automobiles whose pollutant discharge exceeds prescribed standards will be ordered to make corrections by the environmental protection departments at province-level or above. Illegal profits from such practices will be confiscated and a fine amounting to 1-3 times of the commodity cost will be leveraged, it said.

Automobiles which fail to meet the pollutant-discharge standards will be confiscated and destroyed.

Enterprises which sell or import automobiles whose pollutant discharge exceeds prescribed standards will have illegal profits confiscated and be fined between 1-3 times the commodity cost. Automobiles which fail to meet the pollutant-discharge standards will be confiscated and destroyed.

An automobile owner whose car passes a pollutant discharge test by temporarily changing vehicle exhaust control equipment will be fined 5,000 yuan and the related vehicle maintenance factories will be fined between 20,000 yuan to 200,000 yuan.

Departments which falsify vehicle exhaust test results will be fined between 20,000 yuan to 200,000 yuan and have their illegal gains confiscated. If the department refuses to make a correction, its professional qualification will be revoked.

Any organizations, which burn asphalt, rubber, plastic, leather and rubbish in the population-concentrated areas, will be ordered to make correction and fined between 10,000 yuan to 100,000 yuan. For individuals, the fine will be 500 to 50,000 yuan.

Special Coverage:

Air Pollution Control