The Government has promulgated Decree No. 48/2026/NĐ-CP, which amends and supplements certain provisions of Decree No. 08/2022/NĐ-CP dated January 10, 2022, detailing the implementation of several articles of the Law on Environmental Protection, as amended and supplemented by Decree No. 05/2025/NĐ-CP dated January 6, 2025.
Under this new decree, Articles 18, 19, and 26 of Decree No. 08 are revised to reassign responsibilities among authorities for developing and issuing plans to handle, rehabilitate, and restore areas of severely polluted soil; for preparing and appraising projects to establish and recognize natural heritage sites; and for appraising environmental impact assessment reports. In addition, Clauses 2 and 3 of Article 30 are amended regarding the renewal, adjustment, reissuance, and revocation of environmental permits.
According to the amendments, project owners and facilities must adjust their environmental permits within the remaining validity period of the permit when falling into one of the following cases:
First, changes under Point a, Clause 2, Article 44 of the Law on Environmental Protection that do not fall under Clauses 4 and 5 of the same Article, except in cases of reduced permit content or changes in the volume/type of hazardous waste generated.
If the permit content is reduced, adjustments are made upon request of the project owner/facility.
If hazardous waste volume/type changes, the project owner/facility must report the change in their periodic environmental protection report.
Second, projects, facilities, industrial parks, business/service zones, or clusters that increase scale, production capacity, or change production technology as specified in Clauses 3 and 4 of Article 27 of this Decree, leading to changes in permit content, except as provided in Point b, Clause 5 of the same Article.
Third, addition of wastewater transfer or reception plans for treatment as stipulated in Clause 4, Article 74 of this Decree; or addition of wastewater reuse plans as stipulated in Clause 6, Article 74.
Fourth, other changes as specified in Clause 2, Article 27 of this Decree, except as provided in Clause 5 of the same Article.
Adjustments to environmental permits must be carried out electronically via the full-process online public service system of the permitting authority or the authorized agency. Project owners/facilities subject to permit adjustments must submit applications before implementing changes and may only proceed after receiving the adjusted permit.
Applicants may choose to submit their applications electronically via the online public service system, directly in person, or by postal mail.
Notably, the new decree also amends Article 162 on environmental protection inspections. Environmental inspections shall be conducted in accordance with the Law on Inspection, except for unscheduled environmental inspections, which may be carried out without prior notice when necessary, following specific regulations in the field of environmental protection.
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