Research On Legal System Of Soil Pollution Prevention And Control Fund In China

The Soil Pollution Prevention and Control Law of the People's Republic of China which is issued with effect from January 1,2019,puts the central and local soil pollution prevention and control fund system on the agenda.The Measures for the Administration of Soil Pollution Prevention and Control Funds,issued on January 17,2020,puts forward more specific requirements for the establishment of the fund,which defines the soil pollution prevention and control fund as a government investment fund to support the development of the soil remediation and control industry.Its construction principles include government-led,polluter burden,public participation,and marketization.At this stage,further refinement and improvement are needed.The sources of funding for China's soil pollution prevention and control fund are mainly financial allocations,government bonds,and commercial operations represented by the PPP model.There are problems such as over-reliance on financial allocations,immature business models with certain risks,and inadequate accountability systems.Compared with China,the US superfund sources are more extensive,such as environmental taxes,environmental liability insurance,fees recovered from responsible persons,high penalties.China can learn from its extensive sources of funds,such as levying environmental taxes,incorporating fines paid by responsible persons into funding channels,and implementing the polluter responsibility principle.Regarding the unreasonable environmental tax policies of the US superfund,China can classify polluting enterprises and reasonably arrange tax rates.The operating rules of soil pollution prevention and control fund in our country stipulate the scope of use,applicable situation,management mode and unified budget system of the fund,but most of these provisions are general and principled,and lack of specific operating clauses,such as adopting the specific assessment methods and standards of performance management.The super fund has a clear managementorganization and a relatively complete operating system and has established the National Priority List system,but there are problems such as scattered fund management,inefficient use of funds,and lack of corresponding budget procedures.Therefore,China can learn from its list system and strengthen the unified management and budget of funds to avoid corresponding problems in superfund.China's soil pollution prevention and control fund supervision system currently includes supervision institutions,supervision content and punishment methods,but it still stays on the general rules and lacks a specific responsibility supervision system.The US superfund's supervision system is divided into congressional supervision,inspector general supervision,and public supervision,but the lack of strict budget approval leads to the serious waste of funds.Therefore,China should give play to the role of the financial department in the establishment and management of the fund and strengthen the review of the fund budget.The establishment of a legal system for the soil pollution prevention and control fund in China can start from three aspects: the fundraising system,operating rules,and the supervision system.Among them,the fundraising system should broaden the source of funds,clearly pay the fund obligors,and promote the business model of government-enterprise cooperation.In the operating rules,it is necessary to specify the fund's management organization,application situation,the scope of application,and use procedures.The supervision system should specify the management organization,establish a capital registration system,and value public participation.