Increase environmental protection fee revenue for mineral exploitation for localities

((Baonghean.vn) - Voters of Hoang Mai town proposed that the province should allocate environmental protection fee and mineral exploitation fee revenue to the locality to have funds to build environmental protection works.

The relevant authorities responded to this issue as follows:

*For the period 2016 and earlier:

Based on the annual State budget management guidelines of the Ministry of Finance, revenue from granting mineral exploitation rights and environmental protection fees for mineral exploitation are balanced in the budget for environmental expenditure tasks of the whole province (regardless of remediation of environmental pollution works for minerals) and the budget is regulated according to the collection agencies. For example:

- For mineral exploitation rights licensed by the Central Government: the central budget enjoys 70%, the provincial budget enjoys 30%;

- For mineral exploitation rights granted by the province: the provincial budget enjoys 100%;

Stone mining in Hoi Son commune, Anh Son. Photo: Archive

- Regarding environmental protection fees for mineral exploitation: the provincial budget enjoys 100% for enterprises managed by the Tax Department; the district budget enjoys 100% for enterprises managed by the Tax Department. Specifically:

+ In 2015, the whole province collected 57,778 million VND, of which: the provincial budget received 25,752 million VND; the district budget received 32,026 million VND (Hoang Mai town: 2,468 million VND).

+ By October 27, 2016, the whole province collected 58,269 million VND, of which: the provincial budget received 29,764 million VND; the district budget received 28,505 million VND (Hoang Mai town: 2,049 million VND).

Based on the local budget revenue from sources of mineral exploitation rights and environmental protection fees for mineral exploitation, the Provincial People's Committee reports to the Provincial People's Council to allocate environmental career expenditures to all three budget levels. However, the revenue from these sources is lower than the environmental career expenditure task, so the Provincial People's Committee has not been able to provide additional support to localities with funds to overcome environmental pollution from mineral exploitation in the area.

For localities with revenue exceeding the assigned budget, this revenue source will be prioritized for remediation of environmental pollution caused by mineral exploitation according to regulations.

* For the period 2017 - 2020:

To help localities take the initiative in handling environmental pollution, the Provincial People's Committee plans to submit to the Provincial People's Council at the year-end meeting to increase the decentralization of revenue sources to the grassroots, especially revenue sources from mineral exploitation. Specifically:

- For mineral exploitation rights fees granted by local authorities: Reduce the distribution rate for the province, increase the rate for the district and commune budgets. The expected distribution among budget levels is as follows: provincial budget 50%, district budget 40%, commune budget 10%.

- Regarding environmental protection fees for mineral exploitation: reduce the provincial and district levels, increase the commune level. The budget is expected to be divided as follows: provincial budget 50%, district budget 40%, commune budget 10%.

Gia Huy

(Synthetic)