[The Hwankyung Ilbo] The Amendment of the Clean Air Conservation Act passed the plenary session of the National Assembly on October 31.

While large companies in Yeosu Industrial Complex were accused of collusion of reducing and manipulating the concentration of air pollution substance with measurement agencies, criticism has been raised steadily over the regulations on fines and low levy on excess emission.

The amendment stipulated that operators will face up to five years in prison or up to 50 million won in fines, strengthening from the existing 5 million won or less, if they do not measure, record, preserve or if they falsely record pollutants.

It also introduced a punitive levy system that imposes up to 10 times if the same facility repeatedly exceeds the emission limit more than two times.

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