At least one company owes the city 1 billion VND (55,800 USD) in environmental protection fees and several others haven’t paid theirs since 2004, officials at the city’s Natural Resources and Environment Department told the Sai Gon Giai Phong newspaper.

The Tan Phu Thinh company in Go Vap district, which owes about 1 billion VND, said it did not know exactly how to list and calculate their environmental fees. The Vietnam Nikkso company, located at Tan Thuan Proccessing Zone, has discharged up to 11,000cu.m of waste water monthly since January 2004 but hasn’t remitted any of it, saying it had paid the Tan Thuan company for infrastructure maintenance.

Other private enterprises that owe environmental fees dating back five years include: Viet Hung in Tan Thuan Proccessing Zone; Phan Muoi and Thien An in Hoc Mon district; Cao Mau, Nam Quang, Tuong Trung, Nghiep Hung in Cu Chi district; and Giai Viet in district 8.

Each is estimated to discharge more than 9,000cu.m of wastewater quarterly. But the companies attributed the delays to complicated fee-paying procedures.

The deputy head of the environmental protection division, Nguyen Minh Hoang, blamed the problem on soft penalties and loose management. He said enterprises that are late in paying environmental fees are only punished via cash fines, and the maximum fine is even less than the actual fees themselves. It makes sense, he said, that many companies prefer to risk a fine rather than pay their environmental fees.

This leads to a budget deficit, he warned, when the Government must pay to protect the environment but cannot collect the fees from private businesses to do so./.