On 7 July 2022, the Government issued Decree 45/2022/ND-CP on penalties for administrative violations in the field of environment (“Decree 45”). The introduction of Decree 45 to replace Decree 55/2021/ND-CP and Decree 155/2016/ND-CP has timely supplemented and ensured sanctions for administrative violations on environmental protection, raised awareness among individuals and organizations, and enhanced the effectiveness of government management in the field of environmental protection. In particular, some notable new points in Decree 45 are as follows:

Adjust sanctions to be more appropriate

Increase the levels of penalties for the acts such as intentional illicit, clandestine dumping of untreated waste into the environment, causing pollution to the greatest extent. With the new levels of penalties, the authority to issue penalties also changed. For acts occurring in public places, penalties have also been adjusted to be consistent with the authority to issue penalties of local forces. Acts of urinating, defecating, unlawful throwing, disposing, discarding of cigarette butts, heads, asses, unlawful throwing, disposing, discarding of garbage, discharging of wastewater at the wrong place in the apartment complex, service and commercial area, or public places, law enforcement officers on official duty can issue penalties on the spot. Along with direct fines, the Decree also allows for later penalties for the violations mentioned above. Instead of getting fined right when they are caught, the camera system will record the act of dumping garbage and urinating at the wrong place for later punishment.

Additional sanctions for violations of environmental permits and environmental registration

Decree 45 stipulates the levels of penalties for not having an environmental license or for failing environmental registration, which includes the stripping of the right to use an environmental license for a number of serious violations that risk seriously harming the environment such as: (a) violations of the construction and installation of equipment, pipelines or other waste lines to discharge untreated waste into the environment; (b) failure to construct environmental protection works according to regulations; (c) discharging wastewater and emissions in excess of technical regulations multiple times, so serious that operations are suspended.

The stripping of the right to use an environmental license means that the organization or individual is not qualified for production, business or service activities. These are also new points implemented under the Law on Environmental Protection 2020.

Decree 45 also increases the responsibilities of the Management Boards of economic zones, industrial parks, export processing zones and high-tech zones in procedures for stripping the right to use environmental license with a definite term, suspending operations with time limit or being forced to perform remedial measures for violations of organizations under their management.

Adding the statute of limitations for issuing penalties for administrative violations for each violation

Decree 45 adds that the statute of limitations for issuing penalties for administrative violations in the field of environmental protection is two years.

Decree 45 also provides in details the group of administrative violations that has ended or are being committed. This is in line with the provisions of the Law on Handling of Administrative Violations, amended and supplemented in 2020, and is also an important basis for determining the statute of limitations for issuing penalties for each violations, avoiding arbitrary misuse of the law.