Are industrial wastewater from new facilities in Vietnam subject to environmental protection fees?

Are industrial wastewater from new facilities in Vietnam subject to environmental protection fees?

Based on Article 2 of Decree 53/2020/ND-CP regulating environmental protection fees for wastewater, the regulations are as follows:

Subjects of Fees

1. The subject of environmental protection fees under this Decree is industrial wastewater discharged into the receiving water source as per legal regulations and domestic wastewater, excluding cases exempt from fees as stipulated in Article 5 of this Decree.

2. Industrial wastewater is wastewater from factories, locations, manufacturing, and processing facilities (hereinafter collectively referred to as facilities) by organizations, households, and individuals, including:

a) Production and processing facilities for: Agricultural products, forest products, aquatic products, food, alcohol, beer, beverages, tobacco.

b) Livestock and poultry breeding facilities on a farm scale as per livestock regulations; livestock and poultry slaughter facilities.

c) Aquaculture facilities required to develop an environmental impact assessment report or environmental protection plan by regulation.

d) Craft industrial production facilities in craft villages.

dd) Facilities: Tanning, leather recycling, textile, dyeing, garment.

e) Facilities: Mineral mining and processing.

g) Manufacturing facilities: Paper, pulp, plastics, rubber; components, electrical, electronic devices;

h) Facilities: Mechanical, metallurgy, metalworking, machinery, and parts manufacturing.

i) Facilities: Pre-processing of scrap materials, dismantling old ships, ship cleaning and washing, waste treatment.

k) Facilities: Basic chemicals, fertilizers, pharmaceuticals, pesticides, construction materials, stationery, household appliances.

l) Clean water supply plants, power plants.

m) Centralized wastewater treatment systems in urban areas.

n) Centralized wastewater treatment systems in industrial zones, industrial clusters, export processing zones, economic zones, fishing ports, high-tech zones, and other zones.

o) Other production and processing facilities that generate wastewater from manufacturing and processing activities.

3. Domestic wastewater is wastewater from the activities of:

a) Households and individuals.

b) State agencies, public service providers, people's armed forces units, and other organizations (including headquarters, branches, and offices of these agencies, units, or organizations), excluding production or processing facilities belonging to these agencies, units, or organizations.

c) Facilities: Car washing, motorbike washing, car repair, motorbike repair.

d) Health examination and treatment establishments; restaurants, hotels; training and research facilities.

dd) Other business and service establishments not specified in Clause 2 of this Article.

Thus, not only new industrial wastewater is applicable, but also domestic wastewater according to the regulation mentioned above is subject to fees. Specifically, domestic wastewater originates from activities of: Households and individuals; state agencies, public service providers, people's armed forces units, and other organizations (including headquarters, branches, and offices of these agencies, units, or organizations), excluding production or processing facilities belonging to these agencies, units, or organizations.

Are industrial wastewater from new facilities in Vietnam subject to environmental protection fees? (Image from the Internet)

What are conditions for households and individuals in wards in Vietnam to be exempted from environmental protection fees for domestic wastewater?

Based on point b clause 3 Article 5 of Decree 53/2020/ND-CP, regulating the environmental protection fee for wastewater, the following provisions apply:

Fee Exemption Cases

Exemption from environmental protection fees for wastewater in the following cases:

1. Water discharged from hydropower plants.

2. Seawater used in salt production, then discharged.

3. Domestic wastewater of:

a) Organizations, households, and individuals in communes;

b) Organizations, households, and individuals in wards, commune-level towns without a clean water supply system;

c) Households and individuals not engaged in business in wards, commune-level towns with a clean water supply system that self-extract water for use.

4. Cooling water (as regulated by environmental protection law) that does not directly contact pollutants, with separate drainage routes.

5. Wastewater from natural rainwater overflow.

6. Wastewater from fishing vessels of fishermen.

7. Wastewater from centralized urban wastewater treatment systems (as specified in Decree No. 80/2014/ND-CP dated August 6, 2014, of the Government of Vietnam on drainage and wastewater treatment) that has been treated to meet environmental quality standards and technical regulations before being discharged into the receiving source.

The regulation provides for an exemption from environmental protection fees for wastewater from households in wards, commune-level towns without a clean water supply system, and households and individuals not engaged in business in wards, commune-level towns with a clean water supply system that self-extract water for use.

What are regulations on management and use of environmental protection fees for industrial wastewater in Vietnam?

Based on clause 2 Article 9 of Decree 53/2020/ND-CP regulating the environmental protection fee for wastewater, the provisions are as follows:

- For industrial wastewater

+ The fee-collecting organization must pay all the environmental protection fees collected into the state budget, and the state budget ensures operating funds.

+ In cases where the fee-collecting organization is subject to a fixed operational cost as per Article 4 of Decree No. 120/2016/ND-CP dated August 23, 2016, of the Government of Vietnam detailing and guiding the implementation of several articles of the Law on Fees and Charges, 25% of the total environmental protection fees collected may be retained by the fee-collecting organization to cover fee collection activity costs, as specified in Article 5 of Decree No. 120/2016/ND-CP dated August 23, 2016, of the Government of Vietnam detailing and guiding the implementation of several articles of the Law on Fees and Charges; including other expenses such as costs for survey, statistics, review, classification, updating, managing fee subjects; costs for measuring, evaluating, sampling, analyzing wastewater samples to support fee declaration assessments, fee management; regular or ad-hoc inspections of the industrial wastewater-generating facilities.

- The remaining amount, after deducting the fee amounts retained as regulated in clauses 1 and 2 of this Article, the fee-collecting organization is responsible for paying into the local budget for use in environmental protection activities; supplementing operational funds for the local environmental protection fund for preventing, reducing, controlling environmental pollution caused by wastewater, implementing solutions, technological and technical options for wastewater treatment.

- Annually, the fee-collecting organization is responsible for publicly disclosing the environmental protection fees collected in the previous year through public media such as local newspapers, local radio, the fee-collecting organization’s electronic portal, and other appropriate forms for public and business awareness.