New | Guangdong proposes illegal polluters pay fines equal to 30pc of losses
A top executive involved in a dirty project could also lose half their annual salary under tougher measures in a new draft regulation
Anyone who pollutes illegally in Guangdong may have to pay up to 30 per cent of the direct economic losses that it causes, according to a new draft regulation issued by the provincial environmental protection authority.
The penalty is part of the stricter measures against heavily polluting and energy-consumption projects, which will no longer be approved for launch there. The regulation, which has been available since Monday on the standing committee of the provincial people’s congress’ website, is expected to take effect later this year.
The regulation added that if the direct losses of the polluting acts cannot be verified, the polluters will be fined between one million (HK$1.26 million) and three million yuan. Currently, the fine ranges from 50,000 to 300,000 yuan.
In addition, the officials or management involved in that act shall be penalised up to half of their yearly salary.
No new project of petroleum refining, steel-making, coke, smelting nonferrous metals or chemical pulping will be approved in the future across the delta. In addition, polluting industries that involve chemical, metallurgy, paper-making iron and steel will be moved out of urban areas in the delta.
About 28 per cent of the soil in the Pearl River Delta is polluted by heavy metals, according to a report sent by the Guangdong Land and Resources Bureau to the provincial people’s congress last year.
The report also said that half of the land in Guangzhou and Foshan, two industrial hubs in the delta, is contaminated.
Stricter measures on vehicle emissions and vehicle usage in the delta are also under discussion, the draft said.
