- Department:Comprehensive Planning Division
Environmental Protection Administration (EPA) has, in response to amendments to Toxic and Concerned Chemical Substances Control Act (hereinafter referred to as the Toxic Control Act) made on January 16 of 2019, announced a new rule, where entities who gain benefits by violating Toxic Control Act will be imposed with a fine and pursued the illegal income. To maintain fairness and justice, “Regulations for Accounting and Estimating the Benefits from Violating the Obligation of Toxic and Concerned Chemical Substances Control Act” is therefore drafted (hereinafter referred to the Draft) as an accordance for the competent authority to calculate and estimate the said illegal income.
EPA pointed out that fine was a common law conveyance for violating environmental regulations in the past and the amount thereof were assessed in accordance with Paragraph 2 of Article 18 of Administrative Penalty Act. That is, if gained benefit exceeds the maximum statutory amount of fine, the fine may be increased to the extent appropriate within the scope of the benefit gained. In other word, although the illegal income has been pursued, the sanction imposed on violators has someone lessened or exempted (as the fine is included within the amount of illegal income). Not only is this discrepant from environmental justice, but also fair competitions among companies are also affected. Furthermore, those with long-term or significant violations may have positive interest earned from assets (ex. extra money earned from illegal operations of toxic and chemical substances); or negative interest (namely less expenditure) generated from unspent expenditure (ex. expense derived from the purchase, use and maintenance of detection alarm device). If these benefits are not pursued, a loophole in sanctions laws may be exposed. As a result, the violators may think that they will still be profited from violating the laws and will continue to do so.
EPA indicated that the major contents of the Draft include: prompting the competent authority to pay attention to violations that require pursuit of illegal income; the types, calculation and estimation of positive interest, negative interest and total income; source of citation data and information; period of pursuing illegal income; burden of proof and mechanisms related to investigations held by relevant agencies (organizations) and co-audit/ coordination of experts. All of the said information may be offered to the competent authority to pursue and calculate the illegal income case-by-case.
Concerning information related to this advance notice, please download the attachment in EPA’s news zone (https://enews.moenv.gov.tw/enews/); or, 3 days after the announcement date, go to The Executive Yuan Gazette Online to down load relevant information (https://gazette.nat.gov.tw/egFront/). We also welcome people from all circles to, within 60 days upon the announcement date, give any opinions and suggestions on amendments to EPA as a reference for future amendments (Email: mufan.chi@epa.gov.tw).
