Cut down 85% the number of environmental reports for businesses

Mr. Phan Tuan Hung, Director of Legal Department, Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment  

From 2016 to now, the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment has drastically implemented and achieved many important results on administrative procedure reform, business investment conditions, specialized inspection ... As a result, recently the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment has decided to reduce and simplify the reporting regime in administrative agencies and businesses, notably, Circular No. 25/2019 / TT- BTNMT has made breakthrough changes in the reporting regime of enterprises in the environmental field.  

In an interview with Natural Resources and Environment Newspaper, Mr. Phan Tuan Hung, Director of Legal Department, Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment shared about reforming and simplifying the reporting regime of enterprises in the field of environment. Provisions in Circular No. 25/2019 / TT-BTNMT dated December 31, 2019, of the Minister of Natural Resources and Environment detailing the implementation of several articles of Decree No. 40/2019 / ND-CP dated 13 May 5, 2019, amending and supplementing several articles of decrees detailing and guiding the implementation of the Law on Environmental Protection and the regulation on management of environmental monitoring activities.

Reporter: One of the recent reforms that the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment has just implemented is to reform the reporting regime of enterprises in the field of environmental protection. Could you share about this proposed reform? 

Mr. Phan Tuan Hung: Implementing the Government's policy of focusing on enterprises, the driving force for socio-economic development of the country, promoting and creating favorable conditions for enterprises to operate, minimizing The cost of time and funding of people and businesses in compliance with administrative regulations, over the past time, the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment has achieved many results in institutional reform, with a focus on manual reform. administrative procedures, connecting administrative procedures, business investment conditions, specialized inspection, etc.

In our opinion, the reform and creating favorable conditions for people and businesses do not stop at reducing and simplifying administrative procedures, and business and investment conditions are mainly implemented in the investment phase. , building and implementing projects that need to consider and reform other issues and in the process of production, business and service activities of enterprises. One of the problems is reforming the reporting regime of enterprises.

The environmental field is the field related to all organizations and individuals in society, especially businesses. Previously, the field of the environment was the most reporting area that businesses had to make compared to the rest of the ministry (80%). The environmental reporting regime of enterprises is provided in various legal documents ranging from laws, decrees, decisions, and circulars. The contents of these reports are different for different management purposes and purposes. Businesses make environmental reports at different times and state agencies are reported to be very different. Many argue that the previous regulation on environmental reporting is an administrative burden for businesses.

Recognizing this problem, we have carefully reviewed, evaluated and proposed to cut and integrate environmental reports. This proposal became a reality when the Government issued Decree No. 40/2019 / ND-CP regulating the integration of environmental reports; The Minister of Natural Resources and Environment issued Circular No. 25/2019 / TT-BTNMT detailing and stipulating the general environmental protection report form of enterprises, integrating individual environmental reports. before.

Reporter: Could you tell us the state of the reporting regime of enterprises in the field of environmental protection before promulgating Circular No. 25/2019 / TT-BTNMT? 

Mr. Phan Tuan Hung: Before Circular No. 25/2019 / TT-BTNMT was issued, the environment field had 11 legal documents, including laws, decrees, decisions, and circulars; prescribe 27 different types of reports for the subjects that enterprises must make.

Before February 15, 2020, which is the effective date of Circular No. 25/2019 / TT-BTNMT, most businesses must make a minimum of 02 reports and a maximum of 24 different reports. in one year to send different central and local authorities.

According to our review, the reports still have some duplicate and identical content; the frequency and time of the report are different, the agency receiving the report, etc. makes the reporting very unnecessarily complex and an administrative burden for the business. Meanwhile, from the perspective of the state management agency, there is no overall information on the environmental issues or environmental protection of enterprises due to the implementation of the reporting regime separately. , scattering on specific content.

Reporter: How is the reform and simplification of the reporting regime of enterprises on environmental protection prescribed in Circular No. 25/2019 / TT-BTNMT, sir? 

Mr. Phan Tuan Hung: The Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment has proposed and implemented a reduction, integration, and simplification of the reporting regime of enterprises in the field of environmental protection. Accordingly, Clause 2, Article 5 of Decree No. 40/2019 / ND-CP stipulates that environmental reports of enterprises are integrated and integrated into the same environmental protection work report. Circular No. 25/2019 / TT-BTNMT has detailed this content through a form of environmental protection report in Appendix IV to integrate the environmental reports made by enterprises into a joint report called environmental protection work report. Previous separate thematic reports became annexes to the enterprise's environmental protection report.

After Circular No. 25/2019 / TT-BTNMT was issued and takes effect from February 15, 2020, enterprises only make one environmental protection report in one year. Reports on environmental protection of enterprises are sent to all relevant state management agencies and environmental protection agencies, including central and local levels. According to our calculations, Circular No. 25/2019 / TT-BTNMT has cut 23 reports, accounting for 85% of the number of reports of enterprises in the field of environmental protection.

Besides the environmental protection report, there are still a few other specific reports that have not been integrated. In the coming time, we will continue to propose to integrate these reports into the environmental protection report of businesses and will be implemented during the revision of the Law on Environmental Protection and the development of documents. detailing the Law on Environmental Protection. This is to ensure the principle of "an enterprise has only one environmental report" to reduce unnecessary burdens for businesses.

Reporter: The number of reduced and simplified reports is huge in Circular No. 25/2019 / TT-BTNMT, so how can these reduction and simplification bring benefits to businesses?

Mr. Phan Tuan Hung: I think this reduction will certainly have a positive impact on the business community and businesses that benefit from the reform of the environmental reporting regime stipulated in the Circular. No. 25/2019 / TT-BTNMT.

The most noticeable benefits are the reduction and significant savings in resources, time, and cost of reporting for businesses estimated to save hundreds of billion dong each year for the business community. Previously, enterprises had to build many environmental reports with different and separate contents, but now only one synthesis report has been made.

Reforming the reporting regime of enterprises prescribed in Circular No. 25/2019 / TT-BTNMT also reduced the frequency and the number of times required to report. Previously, many reports were made corresponding to different time points, now there is only one reporting time and can be sent to many different authorities. At the same time, this provision also helps eliminate unnecessary duplicates of previous individual reports, helping to ensure the quality of the report and the consistency of the data in the report.

Not only do enterprises benefit from reducing and simplifying the reporting regime in the field of environment, we believe that state management agencies also benefit from integrating and simplifying the regime. this report. Instead of receiving individual, distributed reports, they are now fully and overall reported with systematic information on environmental issues and environmental protection of businesses, This helps to better perform the state management of environmental protection.

Reporter: What is the orientation or in other words, the room for the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment to continue to reform and simplify the reporting regime of enterprises in the field of environment in the coming time, sir? 

Mr. Phan Tuan Hung: The reduction and simplification of the reporting regime for enterprises in the field of environment and other fields under the state management of the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment still have room for implementation. and we will have reform proposals shortly.

One of the upcoming reform directions of the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment is to promote the application of information technology in state management to transform and build e-government, including public application. Information technology to implement a reporting regime in the field of natural resources and the environment.

In the coming time, public administrations and businesses will interact, provide and use online public services, implement reporting on natural resources and the environment on the internet or database system. Data and this will be made much easier and simpler. The application of information technology in the implementation of the environmental reporting regime will certainly reduce the time, resources and significant costs for businesses and people.

Reporter: Sincerely thank the Director! 

Source: https://baotainguyenmoitruong.vn/cat-giam-85-so-luong-bao-cao-ve-moi-truong-cho-doanh-nghiep-302453.html