The higher fees and penalties now being collected from Beijing companies not complying with the city's anti-pollution regulations have raised an additional 88 million yuan US$14 million for the city, according to its environmental monitoring bureau.

The amount so far collected is many times more than the bureau's collection of merely 8.34 million yuan for the same period last year.

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In a news conference in Beijing on Tuesday, Zhong Chonglei, head of Beijing's Environmental Monitoring Team, said that all the money that their bureau will collect will be utilized in the improvement of the city's air quality.

The bureau's collection of higher fees started in January with the hope that doing so will put teeth to the bureau's serious campaign against pollution and to further promote the bureau's image as an environment protector.

Fees charged per kilogram of major pollutants that include ammonia nitrogen, sulfur dioxide, nitrogen oxide and chemical oxygen demand were hiked-up more than ten times.

Zhong said that the hike-up in emission charges has been instrumental in the restructuring of the industrial sector in the city.

"Many companies used to ignore the old discharge fee because it was simply too insignificant," Zhong said. "The increased fee has made many companies realize the importance of emission reduction," he added

Another Chinese key city, Tianjin in North China, plans to follow Beijing's footsteps soon by increasing its fees on the emission of the same major pollutants by July 1.

With the planned increase, the Tianjin Development and Reform Commission forecasts to collect 900 million yearly which will be spent on the environmental programs of the city.

In an attempt to step up its efforts to further reduce harmful emissions, the Beijing environmental monitoring bureau will soon adopt a new fee and punishment scheme for Beijing enterprises.

Companies that will be found to discharge emissions 50 percent less than emission provision will only be asked to pay half of the benchmark price while those found to discharge higher than acceptable levels will have to pay double and likewise be subjected to additional punishment.

To ensure that enterprises pay the right fees and penalties, the bureau will improve its monitoring procedures to prevent enterprises from reporting inaccurate emission figures or from getting away with non-payment of emission fees, according to Zhang Zhanping, deputy head of the capital's monitoring team.