106 firms face 2.74m yuan in pollution fines

The Beijing environmental protection authority plans to fine 106 companies for emitting pollutants into the air, with the fines totaling 2.74 million yuan ($445,000) in the inspection of the first week in August.

A weeklong inspection with the focus on polluting companies was conducted jointly since Aug 1 by the Beijing Environmental Protection Bureau and Beijing Bureau of Administration and Law Enforcement. A total of 1,427 companies were examined.

Of these companies generating air pollutants, 710 are restaurants and 126 are companies in the service sector, which use coal-consuming boilers in production, the environmental protection authority said.

The authority found 106 companies were polluting the environment, and one-third of those were found to have out-of-order equipment to deal with the exhaust fumes. Sixteen percent of the companies were caught discharging air pollutants excessively, and another 27 did not pass the environmental examination procedures.

Of the 106 companies facing charges, 40 are restaurants.