Beijing says not to levy car emission fees in '09

Shanghai, February 1 (Gasgoo.com) In response to a recent media report that Beijing was set to levy emission fees on vehicles this year and a public hearing will be held before the program's kickoff, an environmental official of the capital city said yesterday that charging vehicle emission fees is a policy in consideration and it will not be implemented in 2009, xinhuanet.com reported today.

After the 2008 Beijing Olympics, the city decided to continue its control of vehicle emissions and study the possibility of collecting emission charges on vehicles. Du Shaozhong, deputy director and spokesperson of the Beijing Municipal Environmental Protection Bureau, said that the policy needs further deliberation, as when and how to collect these fees still remain undecided.

"The Ministry of Environmental Protection has conducted pilot programs of collecting emission charges on motor vehicles. However, as this is a complex issue, no specific plan has formed yet on when to start collecting the vehicle emission fees in Beijing."

Du noted that replacing high-emission vehicles is a main task for Beijing's auto authorities this year. The city will offer financial incentives to encourage scrapping of these old, high-emission vehicles for new, cleaner ones. In January, nearly 600 "yellow-labeled" high-emission vehicles were already removed from Beijing's roads.

In 1998, the pilot program of collecting vehicle emission fees were carried out in three cities of Hangzhou, Zhengzhou and Jilin, where 300 yuan ($43) was charged annually for compact vehicles and 500 yuan for mid-size vehicles. But this project only lasted until June 30, 2003.