According to the recent revisions to the Air Pollution Control Act, penalties are now issued based on each violation committed instead of consecutive days of a violation. Consequently, the EPA has also amended the Guidelines for Consecutive Daily Fines for Violations of the Air Pollution Control Act and renamed it the Implementation Guidelines for Late Corrections, Reporting or Improvements for Violations of the Air Pollution Control Act. The new guidelines were made effective on 19 August 2019 for the imposition of penalties by competent authorities.

The main focus of the amendments is to change the basis of the punishment to be the number of violations instead of the consecutive days of a violation, and to move the stipulations in Article 36 to 38 of the Air Pollution Control Act Enforcement Rules to the administrative standards. 

The EPA also referenced the Implementation Guidelines for Late Corrections, Reporting or Improvements for Violations of the Water Pollution Control Act while formulating the amendments with similar topics, including: required documents for the completion of improvements, improvement verification procedures, penalty guidelines and improvement deadlines for failing the improvement verification, and standards for determining implementation failures against improvement plans. 

The EPA reminds the public that heavy penalties (including criminal and administrative penalties) are imposed for violations of the Air Pollution Control Act. Hence, violators should make immediate improvements in compliance with the law to avoid further punishments. Failure to make improvements may result in revocation of operating permits, suspension or even termination of businesses. Any illegal gains from violations will also be confiscated. 

Excerpt from Environmental Policy Monthly, 22 (9)