Businesses that manufacture or import disposable paper containers must declare their business or import volume to the Environmental Protection Agency and pay the recycling and removal fee.

This is a schematic diagram of a paper container.

(file photo)

[Reporter Chen Jiayi/Taipei Report] A food packaging container manufacturing company in Changhua, in order to pay less recycling and cleaning fees, was involved in short-reporting the production volume of disposable containers.

The Environmental Protection Agency stated that in this case, the recovery and removal fee was successfully recovered through public reports and multi-party evidence collection. The public is encouraged to report to the Recycling Fund Management Committee. If definite evidence is found, they will be rewarded with 20% of the amount of shortfalls recovered; internal whistleblowers even Get up to 50% bonus.

According to the "Measures for the Management of Recyclable Waste Responsible Operators", disposable paper containers and plastic containers are classified as responsible items under the Waste Cleanup Act. The operators should recycle to the Environmental Protection Agency every 2 months. According to the facts Declare the business volume, and multiply the business volume by the rate of each product (ranging from 5 yuan to 69 yuan per kilogram), and pay the "recycling and removal processing fee".

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Yuchang Company mainly produces disposable containers such as paper flat containers and plastic containers, but in order to reduce costs and pay less recycling and cleaning fees, it is suspected of short-reporting the production volume of disposable containers.

Since 2019, the person in charge surnamed Lai has required employees to log in to the website of the Environmental Protection Agency to only declare part of the production and business volume, and to short-report the recycling and removal processing fee, and fraudulently obtained NT$125,148,363 from the Environmental Protection Agency. The penalty amount is more than 250.29 million yuan.

In addition, when Changhua District Prosecutors went to search, they found that the company was suspected of tax evasion of 68.87 million yuan, and the total amount of overpayment and fines was 319.16 million yuan.

Wang Yuebin, executive secretary of the Recycling Management Committee of the Environmental Protection Agency, pointed out that in order to prevent operators from making short reports, the Environmental Protection Agency will regularly entrust accountants to handle business or import volume inspections of responsible operators.

In this case, it was discovered during the inspection operation that there had been a long-term high amount of short-lived behavior, and there was also a family business helping to avoid paying taxes. It was referred to the Changhua District Prosecutor's Investigation Office in July last year. The investigation of this case has now been completed.

Wang Yuebin also said that in addition to paying the evasion fee, the unscrupulous operators will also be fined 1 to 3 times the amount of the evasion by the local environmental protection agency according to law, and the person in charge will also be transferred to the inspection and investigation office for prosecution; The tax collection agency will make up the collection and impose fines.

Call on the industry to report in accordance with the regulations, and don't take chances and defy the law.

If the public finds that some operators have violated the law, they can report to the Environmental Protection Agency’s Recycling Fund Management Committee. Those who are verified to be true can receive 20% of the underpaid amount as a reward; 50% of the reward.