“One of the main changes is that while the amount of environmental charges was previously controlled and fixed by the Environmental Board, then according to the draft Act, both calculation and declaring of the charges will be the sole responsibility of the owner of the environmental licence,” Üllar Udras, adviser at the Ministry of the Environment said. Thus, according to the draft Act, the full responsibility for calculating/declaring the environmental charges will be on the holders of environmental licences. Until now, a holder of an environmental licence presented an environmental charge calculation to the Environmental Board and the latter checked and approved it before making a payment. However, the environmental charge declaration still has to be sent to the Environmental Board. The deadline for its submission is the 25th day of the month following the statement quarter, at the latest. “Another larger change is related to division of tasks accompanying management of environmental charges, because in addition to the Environmental Board, the Tax and Customs Board will also be included in management,” Udras said. “The Environmental Board will start to check submission of declarations, carry out audits and set the amount of environmental charge to be paid, if necessary. The Tax and Customs Board will perform the rest of the tax administrator duties.” A holder of an environmental licence shall pay the amount to the bank account of the Tax and Customs Board. The changes stated in this draft Act will affect approximately 2500 undertakings with an environmental licence and an obligation to pay the environmental charges (pollution charge, fee for the special use of water and fee for mineral rights). This reorganisation does not bring about additional costs for payers of environmental charges. The basis on which the charges are calculated will also remain the same (excluding the abolition of the differences in calculating the water pollution charge from 1 January 2013), as well as the principles for collecting the basic data. The tariff rates are set in the Environmental Charges Act. In 2009, a total of EEK 1.12 billion was paid in environmental charges, from which EEK 850 million went to the state budget and EEK 273 million to local governments. The draft Act to amend the Environmental Charges Act and the Taxation Act will be sent to the Riigikogu for further discussion. |
