VietNamNet Bridge
25 November 2013
The highest punishment level for a behavior of violating the environment law is the fine of VND500 million. A behavior will be considered as the violation only if it is recognized by five competent agencies, while it takes the agencies a lot of months to come to final conclusion.
The light punishment and the complicated procedures both prompt enterprises violate the laws and repeat the offense, because they believe that they would be safe after paying fines.
There are some 400 export processing zones (EPZ) and industrial zones (IZ) in the southern key economic zone and neighboring areas, which gather 80,000 enterprises. HCM City is the locality which gathers most enterprises in the industries which discharge high exhaust fumes and waste water.
According to the Department for Environment Criminal Prevention under the Ministry of Public Security, the police of the 11 localities have found 2,303 environment violation cases so far this year, an increase of 150 cases in comparison with 2012.