Draft Regulation Raises Fines for Polluters

The article entitled “Draft regulation raises fines for polluters” stated a claim that China released the second draft of the Air Pollution Regulation to raise fines for polluters. The new regulation removed the 1-million-yuan ($163,396) limit of fines and added five categories of illegal behaviors to the list of fines. As a result, the fines would be doubled. The ground of the claim, as well as the regulation, was that many polluters found that obeying pollution regulations was more costly than paying the fines, so the new regulation aimed to correct this situation. As a backing of the claim, this article explained that illegally barbecuing food in the open air or dismantling the pollution control devices on motor vehicles without permission would result in doubled fines with no upper limits. This is because such acts greatly affect the air quality nearby, as a warrant of the claim. As a rebuttal, experts on environmental laws pointed out that calculating penalties by day was actually a more important item than removing the upper limit for fines, because the previous 1-million-yuan limit might already be hard enough to reach when the regulation was implemented. But the new regulation is still a breakthrough because it reflected that fines on pollution should be harsher on businesses than individuals.

http://usa.chinadaily.com.cn/china/2013-10/13/content_17029024.htm