23 mineral exploitation enterprises in Quy Hop district were fined more than 9.8 billion VND

Of the total 23 enterprises/24 mineral exploitation licenses inspected by the Interdisciplinary Team, 17 licenses were issued by the Provincial People's Committee, 7 licenses were issued by the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment (including 13 white marble licenses, 11 licenses for mining common construction stones). Regarding the operating status, 18 enterprises/19 licenses are currently carrying out mineral exploitation activities; 5 enterprises have temporarily stopped exploitation for nearly 1 year or more due to lack of a consumer market.

The inspection results show that the enterprises have completed their legal documents after licensing; during their operations, they have basically complied with the provisions of the law. However, there are still shortcomings and violations in the implementation of the law on land, minerals, environmental protection, mine design, industrial explosives, labor safety, and compliance with tax laws.

For example, among the 23 inspected enterprises, 11 enterprises used land as mine office areas, waste dumps, and product gathering areas for mining without being leased land by the Provincial People's Committee.

There are 22 enterprises that have made statistical reports and inventories of remaining mineral reserves in licensed areas with incomplete information according to the form prescribed by the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment; there are 22 enterprises that have made incomplete books, vouchers, documents, and related materials to determine actual annual mining output.

All 23 enterprises that make annual status maps still lack some information such as: dumping areas, product storage areas; reserves, mineral exploration projects, etc.; 5 enterprises have signs of mineral exploitation beyond the licensed boundaries.

3/23 enterprises did not prepare annual environmental protection reports as required. 7/23 enterprises did not exploit mines in accordance with the mine design approved by the competent authority; 3/23 enterprises did not submit the approved mine design to the competent state management agency for minerals.

6/23 enterprises issued blasting passports with incomplete contents according to the form issued in Circular No. 13/2018/TT-BCT dated June 15, 2018 of the Ministry of Industry and Trade; 2/23 enterprises violated technical safety regulations on industrial explosives in the use of industrial explosives; 1/23 enterprises did not conduct safety risk assessment and did not develop an emergency response plan in industrial explosives activities; in particular, 1 enterprise reported incorrect data on the use of industrial explosives.

In compliance with labor safety laws, 20/23 enterprises have violations, such as not organizing occupational disease examinations for workers doing heavy, toxic, and dangerous work; not conducting labor environment monitoring to control harmful effects on workers' health according to the provisions of law; not organizing labor safety and hygiene training for workers; not conducting periodic health check-ups twice a year...

Regarding tax law compliance, 18/23 enterprises still declared incorrect resource tax, environmental protection fees, corporate income tax, value added tax, etc. with a total amount of over 3 billion VND.

From the inspection results, the Interdisciplinary Team drew up a record of administrative violations and transferred the file to the Chairman of the Provincial People's Committee, the Tax Department and the Chairman of the People's Committee of Quy Hop district to impose administrative penalties on 23 enterprises with violations with a total amount of more than 9,848,720,637 VND. Of which, the penalty and collection of tax violations was more than 4.2 billion VND; and the penalty for violations in other fields was more than 5.6 billion VND.

Based on the inspection results, the Interdisciplinary Delegation recommended that the Provincial People's Committee request the inspected enterprises to strictly comply with legal regulations in mineral activities and promptly remedy existing problems and violations.

Also related to the inspection of law enforcement in the field of mineral activities, in the period of 2021 - 2022, the Interdisciplinary Inspection Team under Decision No. 3892/QD-UBND dated October 21, 2021 of the Provincial People's Committee pointed out many shortcomings and violations in the inspected enterprises; thereby recommending competent authorities and branches to impose fines and collect more than 44 billion VND; of which, the fines and collection of violations in the field of tax alone is over 18 billion VND.

Previously, on October 20, 2023, the Provincial People's Committee issued Decision No. 3404/QD-UBND on the establishment of an interdisciplinary delegation toinspection of law enforcement in mineral activitiesof enterprises in Quy Hop district. During the implementation of tasks, the key personnel of the Delegation changed, so by Decision No. 1212/QD-UBND dated May 17, 2024, the Provincial People's Committee reorganized the Interdisciplinary Delegation.