Vietnam publishes draft amendment of decree on implementation of Environmental Protection Law 2020: Part 1 and 2

The public was invited to provide feedback on the Draft Decree Amending and Supplementing Decree No. 08/2022/ND-CP Detailing a Number of Articles of the Law on Environmental Protection, which was released by the Vietnamese Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment (MONRE) on October 20, 2023. Out of the 169 articles and 34 annexes of Decree No. 08/2022/ND-CP, the Draft suggests amending 47 of them. The primary items that have been revised are: the Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) scheme’s target, the scope of exemption from environmental registration, the new requirement to renew environmental licences, the Import of Scrap for Production Raw Materials, the Extended Impact Assessment (EIA) scheme’s target, and the preferential taxation for import/export.

The key revisions in terms of EPR regulations are explained below.

Clarifying the scope of the EPR regulation

The Draft clarifies the definitions of “manufacturer” and “importer” in the EPR regulation as follows:

• “Manufacturer” refers to an organization or individual that directly manufactures, or the consignor if the processing is consigned in accordance with the provisions of the Trade Law.
• “Importer” refers to an organization or individual that directly imports, or the consignor if the import is consigned in accordance with the provisions of the Trade Law.

The items and packaging materials related to Recycling Responsibility are suggested to be excluded from the following rules.

• Among food packaging materials, chewing gum packaging materials are exempted.
• Among packaging materials for detergents, household products, agricultural products, and medical products, packaging materials for agricultural chemicals are exempted.

For Annex XXII of Decree No. 08/2022/ND-CP, which specifies the products and packaging materials subject to the Recycling Responsibility, some amendments are proposed: specifying target mixed paper packaging (only multi-layer types are covered by the recycling responsibility), the deletion of multi-layer soft plastic packaging, the reorganization of the list of electrical and electronic equipment, and altering the compulsory recycling rate. In addition, as for the standards for compulsory recycling of products and containers/packaging, the requirement to “collect at least 40% of the product weight based on the compulsory recycling rate” is also deleted.

Manufacturers and importers of goods and packaging covered by Decree No. 08/2022/ND-CP must implement recycling in the manner outlined in either 1. or 2. below: 

• Implementing recycling

• Perform in-house recycling
• Outsource recycling to external recyclers
• Outsource recycling to a third-party intermediary, or
• Combine methods (a), (b) and/or (c) above

1. Making contribution to the Vietnam Environmental Protection Fund (Producers and importers who choose to make contributions to the Fund will be exempted from the obligation to implement recycling.)

The Draft also adds a provision that allows manufacturers and importers to deduct

 (1) the cost of fulfilling the obligation to recycle products and packaging materials

 (2) the contribution paid to the Vietnam Environmental Protection Fund to support recycling activities, when determining income subject to corporate income tax.