Environmental management through economic instruments
Application of EIs in
environmental management is the right approach to curb pollution and
environmental degradation in Vietnam. Currently, a number of EIs have been
deployed at different scales, initially, EIs has a positive impact in curbing
pollution and environmental degradation. However, the process of deploying these
instruments has faced many difficulties; there are many EIs which have not been
applied, especially in areas such as biodiversity
conservation.
The EIs in pollution
management
Currently in Vietnam,
taxes/fees imposed on pollution unit discarded into the environment is being
applied in the form of fees for environmental protection (EP) for wastewater,
solid waste and mineral extraction.
Environmental
protection fee for wastewater is first defined in Decree 67/2003/ND-CP dated
13/6/2003. However, after years of implementation, environmental protection fee
for wastewater still exists many problems. The agency also faced difficulties in
fee collection and calculation. Businesses still find the way to evade and owe
fees. As a result, the fee collection rate of industrial wastewater is
low.
Environmental
protection fees for common solid waste and hazardous solid waste is regulated in
Decree 174/2007/ND-CP dated 29/11/2007. However, revenues from these fees are
not enough to offset the cost of collection and treatment of solid
waste.
Environmental
protection fees for mineral extraction is implemented under Decree No.
63/2008/ND-CP of the Government dated 05.13.2008. However, the fee collection
still faces many difficulties because fee payers do not voluntarily perform such
obligations. There still exists the situation that businesses enumerate the
lower amount of mineral extraction compared to reality to reduce fees
payable.
In addition to three
types of fees included in Pigouvan tax/fee group which was mentioned above,
there is Law on Environmental Protection Tax. This is tax regulation charged on
raw materials/products, including 8 groups of products: Oil, coal, cleaning
solvents containing HCFC, plastic bags and restricted-use group such as: plant
protection drugs, herbicides, termiticides and warehouse
disinfectants.
The pros of applying
environmental protection taxes for materials/products are easy to calculate and
apply. Regarding the cons, this type of tax only encourages pollution but not
encourage the investment in pollution treatment in product manufacturing
process. For the kind of luxury goods, this tax is more effective in curbing
pollution (through curbing consumption/production) but for the essential
commodities, this tax has little effect on reducing
pollution.
The EIs in
biodiversity conservation
Compared to the EIs
in pollution management, the EIs in biodiversity conservation has not been
widely applied in Vietnam, including taxes for natural resource, environmental
services and environmental label some forestry and fishery
products.
Currently a number of
EIs in biodiversity conservation is being studied and applied such as:
Development rights, which can be exchanged or traded, are the rights given to
the owner of the land in the area of biodiversity conservation. These rights can
be sold to investors who intend to invest in development projects in other
lands; however, according to regulations of law, a certain number of
conservation licenses are required to have the right to implement investment
activities. As a result, investors should acquire this license from those who
carry out conservation activities.
Besides, there is
also Green development mechanism, a form which is studied and proposed by
international scientists. Green development mechanism will create a exchange
market for the quotas of economic development activities affecting biodiversity.
Accordingly, there will be a number of certain quotas of development activities
which are determined for a regional or global area. If a country wants to
develop the economy exceeding this quota, it must buy the rights from other
nations.
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