202 companies in Dongguan have been fined a total of RMB 11 million (US$ 1.5 million) for polluting behaviors during the second half of 2009, as released by Dongguan Environmental Protection Bureau on February 23rd.
According to the Bureau, the minimum fine was RMB 50 thousand and 15 of them were fined in excess of RMB 100 thousand. Among them 40 were unlicensed operators.
"These cases where companies were fined in excess of 50 thousand RMB at one time are classified as serious pollution cases," said an official of the Bureau.
In the first half of last year, a total of 58 companies were fined at least 50 thousand RMB. The total figure was 3.23 million RMB. As the economy recovered in the second half of the year, the number of companies fined and the amount of money rose three fold to 202 comapnies and 11 million RMB.
Those companies will be issued "red cards" or "yellow cards" according to their degrees of polluting behaviors, as suggested by the Bureau's environmental friendly credit rating system.
For their punishments, those "red cards" will face the suspension of ability to access loans from banks, and will be required pay back money the banks have previously lent out. For those receive "yellow cards", banks will be stricter in assessment procedure for loan applications.
(By Morvin Chow)
