- Date:2019-12-10
- Department:Comprehensive Planning Division
Environmental Protection Administration (EPA) has, in accordance with “Toxic and Concerned Chemical Substances Control Act” (hereinafter referred to as the Toxic and Chemical Substances Control Act) amended on January 16 of 2019, announced new rules related to those who are benefited from the violation of Toxic and Chemical Substances Control Act. That is, apart from fines, a recovery of illegal money is also deemed necessary. This is the reason that “Regulations for Accounting and Estimation of Illegal Benefits against Toxic and Concerned Chemical Substances Control Act” (hereinafter referred to as the “Regulations”) were stipulated as a reference for the competent authority to calculate and estimate to-be-recovered illegal benefits in order to maintain fair and justice.
EPA expressed that fines were generally adopted as a sanction against the violation of environmental protection regulations, and the amount thereof was measured in accordance with Paragraph 2, Article 18 of Administrative Penalty Act. In the past, if the amount of illegal benefits was higher than the upper limit of fines, it could be deemed as the total of fines. Although this approach facilitated the recovery of illegal benefits, sanction to those who violated the regulations was somehow lessened or exempted (ex. fines were included in the total amount of illegal benefits). Therefore, this approach not only failed to conform to environmental justice, but also impacted fair competition among companies: those who committed violation of materiality or violations over a long period of time could benefit from positive benefits derived therefrom (ex. money earned by violating the restrictions or prohibitions of Toxic and Chemical Substances Control Act); or produce negative benefits (i.e. lessened expenditure) as some expenses were not spent (ex. expenses derived from the purchase of alarm equipment or maintenance fees thereof). The failure of working on the benefit recovery will create a sanctions loophole, where some businesses could cling to illegal benefits and therefore rush into dangers and continued to break the laws.
EPA indicated that the primary contents of the Regulations (ex. suggesting the competent authority to pay attention to the recovery of illegal benefits; the types of positive, negative and total benefits and the accounting and estimation methods thereof; the source of quoted data and/or information and the recovery period; burden of proof and relevant agencies/institutions’ assistance in verification or experts’ joint review and coordination mechanisms) can be offered to the competent authority as a reference for illegal benefit recovery and be used to calculate illegal benefits case-by-case.
With respect to details of relevant information, please download the attachments in the News zone of EPA’s official website
(https://enews.moenv.gov.tw/enews/fact_index.asp); or, after three days after the announcement date, refer to “Laws and Regulations Retrieving System” on EPA’s official website (https://oaout.moenv.gov.tw/law/) or The Executive Yuan Gazette Online (https://gazette.nat.gov.tw/egFront/). You are all welcome to retrieve the information from these websites.
