To remediate the soil and groundwater pollution in Taiwan, the Environmental Protection Administration has begun the collection of the soil and groundwater pollution remediation fee from the manufacturers and importers of officially announced substances in accordance with the amounts manufactured and imported by such enterprises in November of 2001. The remediation fund is used in the soil and groundwater investigations and remediation projects, providing undeniable benefits to environmental protection. Since the officially announced chemical substances are mainly organic substances, the remediation fund is mainly collected from the petrochemical industry. Therefore, the industry continued to reflect that the fee sources should be more fair and reasonable. In response with the industries’s demand and to reflect the current statures of illegal dumping sites, a new version of the collection regulations was implemented in July of 2011. Other than the originally regulated substances, steel, coal, copper, nickel, and industrial wastes from the specified 13 industries were added to the regulated substances. Afterwards, the revised regulations were promulgated on December 30, 2016 and were implemented since July 1, 2017. The wastes from the specified 13 industries were canceled, and changed to designated 66 wastes items and corresponding codes. After the revision, the number of fee-payers has increased approximately from 4,000 to 7,000, and an average of 1.2 billion NT dollars of remediation fee is collected each year. A total of 12.7 billion NT dollars of remediation fee had been collected since November of 2001. This year's execution results are as follows :
(I) A total of 28,842 cases were audited for completeness, whereas 16,115 cases were audited manually for correctness. For those who were audited for completeness, 0.24% were found incorrect by the reexamination team, whereas 0.05% of the cases audited manually for correctness were found incorrect; showing minimal differences between the auditing team and the reexamination team. 67 cases of refund application for insurance purchases and pollution prevention projects in 2016 were filed this year. Among them, about 116 million NT dollars was refunded.
(II) 293 cases of on-site auditing was completed, which include241 correct declaration cases and 52 incorrect cases required for follow-up declaration to recover the unpaid fees. 52 sites of refund application for pollution prevention projects in 2016 were visited.
(III)Completed the research for the mechanism of filing for and verification of statements of soil and groundwater pollution remediation fees, whose content is aimed at a review on the existing project implementation issues, revised plans to put forward the countermeasures and supporting measures, based on practical experience in audit work. It is expected to increase the efficiency of reporting and review of filing for and verification of statements of soil and groundwater pollution remediation fees in Taiwan.
(IV) 4 consultation hotlines were set up to maintain smooth communication channels. Collecting the industry’s problems in reporting operational procedures for reference to future policy changes.
