In order to raise the awareness and responsibility for environmental protection among organisations and individuals, the Ministry of Finance in Vietnam is collecting comments on the draft Decree regulating environmental protection fee for emissions.
Air pollution, especially in big cities in Vietnam, is on an increasing trend at an alarming level. One of the reasons for this situation is due to the exhausting activities of multiple facilities and vehicles. Currently, Vietnam has about 5.1 million cars and a large number of motorbikes, with dozens of industrial complexes of multiple projects of bauxite production, iron and steel, petrochemical refining, and power centres. In addition, Vietnam has nearly 120,000 industrial production facilities, of which 138 are causing serious pollution, and about 110,000 construction enterprises. These facilities generate large volumes of industrial emissions and dust, which adversely affect the environment.
According to the Ministry of Finance, a fixed fee is proposed to be collected for all emission-discharging facilities, to ensure the cost of treating substances outside of 04 substances (total dust, NOx, SOx, CO) at a rate of 3 million VND/year (about $120/year). Additionally, there is a variable fee collected for establishments that have to monitor emissions (collected for 4 substances: total dust, NOx, SOx, CO). The suggested fee is 800 VND/ton for dust ($0.033), 800 VND/ton for NOx (including NO2 and NO) ($0.033), 700 VND/ton for Sox ($0.029) and 500 VND/ton for CO ($0.021). The Ministry of Finance expects that implementing this policy will increase about VND 1,200 billion/year to the state budget, which will be used to overcome air pollution in the locality where there are sources of air pollution.
Source: the Internet