China's top legislature on Monday started to read a draft amendment requiring intensified inspections on the clean production of enterprises.

The Standing Committee of the National People's Congress (NPC) reviewed the draft amendment to the Law on the Promotion of Clean Production at a bimonthly session running from Monday to Saturday.

The amendment provides that a national clean production examination system should be established, and obliges more enterprises to undergo compulsory clean production checks.

Local governments are responsible for the evaluations, and relevant results should be made public. Enterprises found to emit more pollutants than permitted will be punished accordingly, according to the amendment.

The amendment specifically states that the cost of such evaluations should be shouldered by local government budgets, and enterprises should not be charged.

The amendment also proposes an allocation from the central budget to boost clean production. It provides that a national clean production fund be set up to facilitate the compulsory enterprise inspections and to support key energy-saving projects as well as those located in ecologically-fragile regions.

Wang Guangtao, Chairman of the Environmental Protection and Resources Conservation Committee of the National People's Congress, said in his report that the national fund aims to financially support the overall clean production program and to ensure the effectiveness of compulsory clean production checks.

The Law on the Promotion of Clean Production came into effect in 2003.

(Xinhua News Agency October 24, 2011)