Factories emitting fine particulate pollutants such as PM2.5 will have to pay an air pollution tax from next year, Environmental Protection Administration (EPA) officials said yesterday, adding that new standards for the tax are to be launched by the end of this year.

Drafting the rules is expected to be finalized by the end of this year and they are scheduled to be put in place in April at the earliest, the EPA said.

According to the Standards of Air Quality (空氣品質標準), the nation’s annual average PM2.5 concentration should be kept below 15 micrograms per cubic meter (mcg/m3).

However, the average level of PM2.5 last year was 20mcg/m3, EPA data showed.

At an impromptu news conference yesterday, EPA Deputy Minister Chan Shun-kuei (詹順貴) said that the concentrations of sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxides in air have been falling, but the improvement in overall air quality might not be that obvious.

The news conference was held in response to specific media reports yesterday that the EPA had done little to improve air quality, even though it has collected an air pollution tax since 1995.

A report by the Chinese-language United Daily News blamed the EPA for targeting only mobile pollution sources rather than large-scale and fixed polluting facilities.

The average level of sulfur dioxide has been reduced by 43 percent over the past 11 years, while that of PM2.5 has fallen by 17 percent since 2013, EPA Department of Air Quality Protection and Noise Control Director-General Tsai Hung-teh (蔡鴻德) said.

About 8,000 factories that emit PM2.5 particles will be required to pay air pollution fees, which the EPA estimated would generate NT$1.2 billion (US$39.8 million) to be used toward controlling air pollution, Tsai said.

In the initial stage, air pollution fees are to be categorized into “spring-summer” and “autumn-winter” schedules, all of which are to be classified into three grades according to the volume of emissions, he added.

State-run power plants are required to adopt more efficient power generators and the best available pollution control technology to reduce emissions, Tsai said, adding that the nation’s power plants are expected to cut polluting emissions by about 33 percent, from 99,000 tonnes of air pollutants last year to 66,000 tonnes in 2026.

New standards for the air pollution tax on stationary sources are to be launched by the end of this year and factories emitting air pollutants, such as fine particles and heavy metals, would be taxed, he said.

The EPA would also collect tax from gas-fired plants that emit nitrogen oxides, Tsai added.

“By the end of 2019, we hope to push the annual average PM2.5 level down to 18mcg/m3,” Chan said.

If China continues to curb air pollution by prohibiting coal burning, Taiwan’s air quality could benefit as well and the nation is likely to achieve the legal annual maximum concentration of 15mcg/m3 by 2019, he said.

Chan added that the EPA would propose more measures to improve air quality if it failed to achieve the goal by then.

Additional reporting by CNA