A number of listed companies have been put on file to investigate how to solve the problem of environmental dishonesty.
Beijing, August 3 (Reporter Zhou Yifan, intern reporter TOTTI Zhang) According to the Voice of China report, since the 19th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, "accelerating the reform of ecological civilization system and building a beautiful China" has become an important topic. Since this year, the media has exposed a number of listed companies, including Shanxi Sanwei, Jiangsu Huifeng and Yunnan Luoping Zinc and Electricity. These enterprises have abandoned the environment for a long time in pursuit of profits in their production and operation. In the first batch of central environmental protection inspectors looking back, tricks such as "superficial rectification", "pretending rectification" and "perfunctory rectification" were exposed one by one. Is there any way to restrain enterprises from breaking their promises in the field of environmental protection? What other policies need to be promoted urgently in the construction of environmental credit system?
On July 30th, Yunnan Luoping Zinc Power Company issued the Announcement on the Progress of Rectification of Environmental Hidden Dangers. This enterprise, which was criticized by the first round of central environmental protection inspectors in 2016, has not improved in two years. According to the feedback from the sixth group of "Looking Back" of the Central Environmental Protection Inspector, the company "treated the headache and the foot pain" in the rectification work, pretending to rectify and perfunctory rectification, and the illegal storage of waste residue remained the same, and the old accounts were not paid back and new accounts were owed.
Yu Yongxian, vice chairman of Luoping Zinc and Electricity Co., Ltd., said in an interview with CCTV reporters:
Reporter: Did you know that the Central Environmental Protection Inspector reflected your problems in 2016?
Yu Yongxian: I didn’t know until later.
Reporter: When did you know later?
Yu Yongxian: It should be in the process of this year.
There are similar situations, including Shanxi Sanwei and Yancheng Huifeng.
Shanxi Sanwei was "criticized by name" by the former Ministry of Environmental Protection as early as 2013. From 2014 to 2017, Shanxi Sanwei successively received seven "Administrative Punishment Decisions" issued by the Environmental Protection Bureau, ordering it to correct environmental pollution, involving a total fine of more than 2.8 million yuan.
In the face of many roll calls, enterprises are indifferent for a simple reason: interests are at work. Controlling pollution emissions means that capital investment will increase and costs will inevitably rise. On the other hand, some regulatory authorities only look at the economy and ignore environmental protection, only care about the present and ignore the future, and passively respond to or resist environmental protection inspectors, resulting in the aggravation and deterioration of the regional ecological environment.
The contents related to environmental protection disclosed in Shanxi Sanwei’s semi-annual report and annual report from 2014 to 2017 are inconsistent with the fact that Shanxi Sanwei has been repeatedly punished by the environmental protection department, and with the fact that the sewage discharge exceeds the standard in its daily production and operation. In recent years, Shanxi Sanwei was constantly exposed by the media. Until April this year, CCTV found that "Sanwei Group still illegally dumped industrial waste residue to pollute farmland, and the production wastewater was directly discharged into Fenhe River", which was threatened by local village cadres.
Is the enterprise so rampant, is it a lack of restraint policies or the punishment cost is too low? Zhu Xiao, a professor at Renmin University of China, said that the current system is relatively perfect, but there are many things to be done in the field of environmental protection. "Many things in environmental protection cannot be done afterwards. Tell him in advance with the capital market that if you do this, you have to pay back the money in advance, and he will be afraid; If he can’t get the loan, he will be afraid; The securities market should take corresponding punishment, which is definitely better than investigating its responsibility, administrative fines, shutting down punishment and even putting him in jail afterwards. "
In order to pursue profits and violate the law, we must make a fuss about economic benefits. In 2013, the former Ministry of Environmental Protection, together with the National Development and Reform Commission, the People’s Bank of China and the former China Banking Regulatory Commission, jointly issued the Measures for the Evaluation of Enterprise Environmental Credit (for Trial Implementation). The environmental protection department informed the evaluation results of enterprise environmental credit to relevant departments including the People’s Bank of China, securities and insurance regulatory agencies, which applied the evaluation results of enterprise environmental credit in administrative licensing, public procurement and financial support.
Zhu Xiao introduced: "The system in 2013 mainly identified a subject, that is, environmental protection departments at all levels to evaluate. Secondly, the general method of evaluation is determined. After the preliminary results come out, there is a formula, and the interested party is the person who is evaluated and can raise objections. "
In 2015, the former Ministry of Environmental Protection and the National Development and Reform Commission issued the Guiding Opinions on Strengthening the Construction of Enterprise Environmental Credit System. In 2016, more than 30 departments signed the Memorandum of Cooperation on Joint Punishment of Dishonest Production and Business Units and Their Relevant Personnel in the Field of Environmental Protection. Yang Shuying, deputy director of the Environmental Economics and Management Policy Research Department of the Environmental and Economic Policy Research Center of the Ministry of Ecology and Environment, said that more than 20 provincial environmental protection departments, including Jiangsu Province and Fujian Province, have issued corporate environmental credit evaluation systems or implementation plans, which divide enterprises into green to black grades. The average loan balance of ICBC to green enterprises is 23 times that of red enterprises. In 2016, the total loan balance of green enterprises and blue enterprises in Jiangsu Province increased by about 15%. The environmental protection department will also push the illegal information of the red and black enterprises to the relevant departments. In government procurement, land supply, qualification licensing, tax incentives and other fields will be restricted according to law. The worse the environmental credit, the higher the environmental cost it will bear.
Cao Jiageng, deputy director of Dafeng Environmental Protection Bureau in Yancheng, Jiangsu Province, took Huifeng as an example to explain what kind of price enterprises will pay for environmental violations after joint punishment. This enterprise, which is mainly engaged in agricultural production, has been investigated by the Securities and Futures Commission for a series of problems, such as illegal disposal of hazardous waste, illegal transfer and storage of hazardous waste, long-term smuggling of high-concentration toxic and harmful waste water, abnormal operation of pollution control facilities, temporary fabrication of hazardous waste management accounts, and provision of false statements. The chairman of Huifeng Co., Ltd. has been subjected to criminal compulsory measures, and investors are constantly considering initiating claims. At the same time, the enterprise will probably pay 7 million yuan more than before in terms of electricity and water charges. Cao Jiageng introduced that the environmental credit of Jiangsu Huifeng Bio-agriculture Co., Ltd. was rated as black. In terms of electricity and water charges, differentiated electricity and water prices will be implemented, with each kilowatt-hour higher than that of 0.1 yuan and each ton of water higher than that of 1.0 yuan. If enterprises do not actively rectify and repair environmental protection credit in time, and take the electricity consumption and water consumption of their companies last year as a reference to estimate, the electricity bill may cost more than 6 million yuan, and the water bill may cost more than 1 million yuan.
Joint punishment will also make illegal enterprises bear the pressure transmitted from the capital market. After Shanxi’s three-dimensional illegal acts were named again this year, Shanxi Securities Regulatory Bureau responded at the first time and rushed to the scene to verify the situation.
Gao Li, spokesperson of the China Securities Regulatory Commission, introduced that on April 19, Shanxi Sanwei was investigated for alleged violations of the law, and on May 24, Shanxi Sanwei and related responsible personnel, including the then and current chairman and general manager, totaled 28 people. Inform them in advance of administrative punishment for illegal acts, and punish them according to law after listening to the parties’ statements. In the next step, the CSRC will continue to maintain the high-pressure situation of law enforcement against major environmental pollution information disclosure violations, and comprehensively and strictly implement administrative penalties according to law.
In addition, the Measures for the Administration of Compulsory Liability Insurance for Environmental Pollution is expected to be implemented this year, which is similar to the last "compulsory insurance" for enterprises with pollution risks. If they do not take out insurance, they will be punished according to law. At the same time, if environmental protection is not law-abiding, the premium will also increase. Yang Shuying believes that there are still many aspects of the joint disciplinary system in the field of environmental protection that need to be further promoted, one of which is the strength of integrity incentives. "Because now many enterprises are not enthusiastic after seeing the environmental credit evaluation, mainly because the strength is not enough. The next step is to increase incentives for honest enterprises. For example, under the same conditions, honest enterprises will be provided with some administrative licenses and convenience in daily supervision according to laws and regulations, and they will be supported to give priority to bidding activities for some government procurement and government-invested public works construction projects, improve their financing credit line, and implement some preferential interest rates and other incentives to solve some current problems of heavy punishment and light reward. "