Readers’ questions: I have a restaurant with an area of 150m2 that specializes in serving local specialties in A province. The restaurant opens from early morning until midnight and is always bustling with customers. Recently, a person who claimed to be an officer of the Department of Natural Resources and Environment visited my restaurant. Seeing the crowded restaurant, he asked if I had registered for environmental management. He said that given the large number of customers, the wastewater output must be very high. If I don’t register for environmental management, I will be fined. I would like to ask the Lawyer to review and advise me on whether my restaurant needs to register for environmental management or not.
ATA’s answer:
Hello, thank you for trusting us. ATA Global Legal Limited Company (“ATA”) is one of the best legal consulting firms with experienced, professional, and dedicated lawyers and legal experts, always ready to support organizations and individuals in addressing legal issues related to production and business.
Regarding the situation and question you raised, ATA’s Lawyers and environmental legal experts provide the following explanation:
1. What is environmental management registration? What cases require environmental registration? What are the legal consequences of failing to register for environment management?
According to the 2020 Environmental Protect Law, environmental management registration means the process in which project investors, production, business, and service establishments register with the state management agencies the content related to waste discharge and environmental protection measures of the investment project (“IP”), production, business, and service establishments (“PBSE”).
The content of environmental registration include:
- General information about the IP, PBSE;
- Type of production, business, service; technology, capacity, products; raw materials, fuels, chemicals used (if any);
- Types and volumes of generated waste;
- Plans for waste collection, management, and treatment according to regulations;
- Commitments to environmental protection.
Timing of environmental registration:
- For IP subject to environmental impact assessment: before official operation;
- For IP not subject to environmental impact assessment: before obtaining a construction permit or before discharging waste into the environment (for cases without a construction permit);
- For PBSE operating before January 1, 2022, that generates waste: within 24 months from January 1, 2022.
Penalties for failure to register for environmental management:
According to Decree 45/2022/ND-CP on administrative penalties in the environmental protection field, IP, and PBSE that fail to register for environmental management in accordance with regulations may face fines of up to 30 million VND for individuals and 60 million VND for organizations.
2. Cases requiring environmental registration:
As a general rule, except for cases exempted from environmental registration, IP and PBSE that generate waste and are not subject to environmental permits must register for environmental management.
According to the 2020 Environmental Protection Law and Decree 08/2022/ND-CP, which details some provisions of the amended and supplemented Environmental Protection Law, the following are exempt from environmental registration:
a) DA and CSKD classified as state secrets for national defense and security;
b) DA that, when put into operation, and CSKD that do not generate waste or only generate small amounts of waste meeting the following criteria:
- Generating hazardous waste of less than 20 kg/month or less than 240 kg/year;
- Generating common industrial waste for disposal of less than 100 kg/month or less than 1,200 kg/year;
- Generating household solid waste of less than 300 kg/day;
- Generating wastewater of less than 5 m³/day and exhaust gases of less than 50 m³/hour, treated on-site with treatment facilities or managed by local authorities.
c) Projects and CSKDs exempt from environmental registration regardless of the volume of waste generated:
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No. |
Project |
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1. |
Human resource training activities; consulting, technology transfer, vocational training, technical skills, management skills, information provision, marketing, investment promotion, and trade. |
|
2. |
Production, screening, and distribution of television programs; film production; broadcasting activities; audio recording and music publishing. |
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3. |
Commercial services, mobile retail without a fixed location. |
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4. |
Commercial services, retail of consumer goods, household appliances with a building area under 200 m². |
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5. |
Food service establishments with a building area under 200 m². |
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6. |
Personal or household-scale repair and maintenance services for household appliances. |
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7. |
Photocopying services, internet access, video game services. |
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8. |
Agricultural, forestry, aquaculture, and livestock farming activities on a personal or household scale. |
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9. |
Plant cultivation trials under 1 hectare. |
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10. |
Individual or household-scale housing construction. |
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11. |
Marine, river, or reservoir-based aquaculture projects. |
3. Response to the reader's situation and question:
According to the regulations above, projects, commercial establishments, and food service businesses with a building area under 200m² are exempt from environmental registration, regardless of the actual wastewater output.
From the information you provided, your restaurant has an area of about 150m². Therefore, your restaurant falls under the category of food service establishments with a building area under 200m², and it is exempt from environmental registration according to current legal regulations. As a result, at this time, you do not need to carry out the environmental registration process.
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