Fines slapped on companies found violating the law by Chinese environmental protection authorities from January to April reached 112 million yuan ($18 million), Zou Shoumin, head of the Ministry of Environmental Protection's (MEP) supervision bureau, was quoted by China News Service as saying on Tuesday.
China's environment watchdogs and prosecutors had stepped up their campaign against anti-pollution violators and officials suspected of dereliction of duty as the strictest ever Environmental Protection Law was enforced this year.
"Since the daily-based fine system was not established until the amended law was enforced on January 1, I expect more data to be released in the next few months to evaluate how heavy the penalties are," said Xia Jun, an environmental lawyer with the All China Lawyers' Association.
Under the new law, if businesses are fined for illegally discharging pollutants but fail to do anything about it, they may face a fine which accumulates daily, as against a previous one-time fine.
Among the offenders, State-owned Shaanxi Coal and Chemical Industry Group Co Ltd was slapped the heaviest fine of 15.8 million yuan in March for failing to stop discharging polluted water after it was warned twice 79 days ago. The fine is 79 times the original penalty of 200,000 yuan.
The hefty fines are aimed at forcing companies to make the necessary changes, said Xia.
However, he warned that the hefty sums, a basis for the performance of local environmental protection regulators, were likely to encourage authorities to slap fines without shutting down serious violators.
From January 2014 to April 2015, prosecutors investigated 489 corruption and bribery cases involving 581 officials while another 1,123 cases involving 1,582 officials were probed for dereliction of duty involving environmental issues, the Supreme People's Procuratorate said on Tuesday.
Separately, the MEP has required four cities including Qinhuangdao, Hebei Province and Zhangjiajie, Hunan Province to suspend environmental assessment for failing to attain pollutant emission reduction targets.
