Addressing a recent media report announcing that Beijing is expected to collect emission charges on motor vehicles this year and that a public hearing will be held before implementation of the program, an official at the Beijing Municipal Environmental Protection Bureau pointed out on January 31 that the news is an unsupported rumor. Collecting emission charges on motor vehicles is just a policy that Beijing will further study, and there are no plans for implementing the policy this year.

After the Beijing Olympics last year, the city proposed that it would strengthen the management of motor vehicle emissions, and conduct further study on the policy of collecting emission charges on motor vehicles. Du Shaozhong, deputy director general and spokesperson of the Beijing Municipal Environmental Protection Bureau, said that, at present, the policy is still in the process of further study, as timing and methods of collection still remain undecided. “The Ministry of Environmental Protection has carried out nationwide pilot programs of collecting emission charges on motor vehicles. However, given the complexity of this issue, currently there is no specific plan on when this collection will be implemented in Beijing.”

He said eliminating and replacing high-emission vehicles is the main focus for Beijing’s automobile administration this year. Financial incentives will be used to encourage these old and high-emission vehicles to be scrapped or removed from Beijing. So far, the work of eliminating high-emission vehicles is moving forward smoothly. As of before Spring Festival this year, 576 high-emission vehicles had already been eliminated.

In 1998, pilot programs for collecting vehicle emission fees based on total emissions were carried out in the cities of Hangzhou, Zhengzhou and Jilin. According to regulations at the time, 300 yuan and 500 yuan were charged annually for compact vehicles and for mid-size vehicles respectively. However, fee collection only lasted until June 30, 2003.

By People's Daily Online