Order of the State Council on Promulgating the Administrative Regulations on the Collection and Use of Pollutant Emission Charges

Order of the State Council on Promulgating the Administrative Regulations on the Collection and Use of Pollutant Emission Charges

Order of the State Council [2003] No.369

January 2, 2003

The Administrative Regulations on the Collection and Use of Pollutant Emission Charges, which were adopted at the 54th executive meeting of the State Council on January 30, 2002, are hereby promulgated for implementation as of July 1, 2003.

Zhu Rongji, Premier

Appendix: Administrative Regulations on the Collection and Use of Pollutant Emission Charges

Chapter I General Provisions

Article 1 In order to strengthen the collection and use of pollutant emission charges, the Administrative Regulations on the Collection and Use of Pollutant Emission Charges (hereinafter referred to as the "Regulations") are formulated.

Article 2 The pollutant emission charges incurred by those entities and individual businesses which directly emit pollutants into the environment (hereinafter referred to as the "polluters") shall be paid by them pursuant hereto.
Those polluters who discharge sewage to the centralized urban sewage treatment facilities and are charged for sewage treatment do not need to pay the pollutant emission charges. Where the facilities or places built by the polluters for storage or disposal of industrial solid waste meet the environmental standards, or the same things owned by the polluters meet the environmental standards after the renovation thereof, these polluters will have no need to pay the pollutant emission charges as of the completion of the construction or renovation.
The State actively promotes the industrialization of urban sewage and garbage disposal. The charging measures for the urban centralized sewage and garbage treatment shall be otherwise formulated.

Article 3 The administrative departments in charge of environmental protection, financial departments, and competent price departments of the people's governments at or above the county level shall, as per their respective duties, strengthen the guidance, administration and supervision under which the pollutant emission charges are collected and used.

Article 4 The collection and use of pollutant emission charges shall be strictly subject to the principle of "two routes for collection and disbursement", that is to say, the pollutant emission charges collected shall all be turned over to the financial departments and the outlays for the environmental protection laws enforcement shall be included in the budget of respective departments and secured by the financial departments at the same level.

Article 5 All the pollutant emission charges shall be used for the environmental pollution prevention and control, and shall not be withheld, misappropriated or embezzled for other purposes by any entity or individual.
Any entity or individual is entitled to the report on, and accusation or complaint on the act such as withholding, misappropriating or embezzling the pollutant emission charges.

Chapter II Evaluation of Type and Quantity of Pollutants Emitted

Article 6 The polluters shall report the type and quantity of the pollutants emitted and shall provide the relevant information, to the administrative departments in charge of environmental protection of the local people's governments at or above the county level, pursuant to the provisions of administrative department in charge of environmental protection under the State Council.

Article 7 The administrative departments in charge of environmental protection of the local people's governments at or above the county level shall, subject to the authority granted by the administrative department in charge of environmental protection under the State Council as to the evaluation, evaluate the type and quantity of the pollutants discharged by polluters.
The amount of sulfur dioxide emitted by the power companies with the installed capacity of over 300,000 kW shall be evaluated by the administrative departments in charge of environmental protection of provinces, autonomous regions and municipalities directly under the Central Government.
The administrative departments in charge of environmental protection shall notify the polluters in a written form of the type and quantity of the pollutants emitted by the polluters and evaluated and determined by such departments.

Article 8 If any polluter disagrees on the type and quantity of the pollutants emitted by it and evaluated, it shall, within seven days since the receipt of the notice, file a review application to the administrative department in charge of environmental protection, which is the notice sender; the administrative department in charge of environmental protection shall, within ten days since the receipt of the review application, make the decision on review.

Article 9 When evaluating type and quantity of pollutants emitted, an administrative department in charge of environmental protection shall, if monitoring conditions are met, make evaluation subject to the monitoring methods stipulated by the administrative department in charge of environmental protection under the State Council; if monitoring conditions are not met, it shall conduct evaluation pursuant to the material balance method prescribed by the administrative department in charge of environmental protection under the State Council.

Article 10 Where any polluter uses the automatic pollutant emission monitoring instrument, as forced by the State provisions, to monitor the pollutant emission, the monitoring data shall be deemed as the basis for the evaluation of the type and quantity of the pollutants emitted.
The automatic pollutant emission monitoring instrument installed by polluters shall be checked on a regular basis in accordance with the law.

Chapter III Collection of Pollutant Emission Charges

Article 11 The competent price department, financial department, administrative department in charge of environmental protection, and economic and trade administrative department under the State Council shall, in accordance with the development need of pollution control industrialization, the requirement of pollution prevention and control, as well as the economic and technical conditions and the affordability of the polluters, formulate the national standards for collection of pollutant emission charges.
If no national standards for collection of the pollutant emission charges are specified, the people's governments of provinces, autonomous regions and municipalities directly under the Central Government may formulate the local standards for collection of the pollutant emission charges, and submit the same to the competent price department, financial department, administrative department in charge of environmental protection, and economic and trade administrative department under the State Council for the record.
The amendment to the standards for collection of pollutant emission charges is subject to the advance notice system.

Article 12 The polluters shall base the payment of pollutant emission charges on the following provisions:
1.
　　......