MOF is consulting with ministries, branches, localities and enterprises on the draft decree on an environment protection fee on emissions.

Explaining the necessity to apply the tax, MOF said in Vietnam, because of rapid socio-economic development, the quality of air in large cities, some industrial zones and craft villages has been declining, thus causing serious consequences to the community’s health, damages to the national economy, and threats to the environment.

There are millions of automobiles and motorbikes in circulation, and there are tens of production complexes with many projects and factories manufacturing bauxite and steel, and petrochemistry, oil refinery and power centers which produce a huge volume of industrial emissions every day.

There are nearly 120,000 industrial production units, including 138 polluting units, and about 110,000 construction companies that build houses, apartments, new urban areas, bridges and roads, and both use and transport building materials. The units also generate big volumes of industrial and dust emissions.

“Most organizations and individuals discharging waste to the environment and causing air pollution have not been fully aware of their responsibility in protecting the air we breathe,” MOF stated.

The ministry believes that a decree on collecting an environmental protection fee is a necessity in order to institutionalize the policies of the Party and the Government, and perfect the legal system to make it come in line with reality and to gradually raise everyone's awareness of environmental protection.

In order to make it convincing when calculating the fees that individuals and organizations will have to pay, waste sources need to be already addressed by laws and the volume of pollutants in emissions needs to be measured.

Therefore, in the immediate time, the environmental protection fee will only be imposed on some subjects, including steel and cement manufacturing, metallurgy, basic inorganic chemicals, inorganic fertilizers and nitrogen compounds; oil refinery; recycling and treatment of daily-life solid waste; production of coke, coal gas; thermal power.

How much to collect? 

According to MOF, there should be two types of fees, including a fixed fee and changeable fee. The former is charged on all units that discharge emissions to ensure resources to treat substances except for four (total particulates, NOx, Sox and CO), while the latter is an additional fee collection charged on facilities that need emissions monitoring (of four substances - total particulates, NOx, Sox and CO).

Luong Bang