Decree 48/2026/ND-CP amending Decree 08/2022/ND-CP on environmental protection

Decree 48/2026/ND-CP was issued by the Government on 29 January 2026, amending and supplementing Decree 08/2022/ND-CP, which guides the Law on Environmental Protection. It took effect on the day of signing and touches three tasks that manufacturers deal with regularly: environmental impact assessment, environmental permits and receiving inspection teams.

Update 10/2026: the threshold for requiring an environmental permit has changed

From 18 May 2026 to the end of 28 February 2027, Resolution 66.19/2026/NQ-CP of the Government (news item on the Government Portal (in Vietnamese)) redefines which entities must hold an environmental permit. During this period, businesses should check against the levels below instead of the thresholds given in section 1:

A permit is required when industrial wastewater to be treated reaches 100 m³/day or more, or exhaust gas reaches 100,000 m³/hour or more, for: textiles with a dyeing stage, tanning, paper with a pulping stage, seafood processing, cassava starch, monosodium glutamate, cane sugar, rubber latex processing, basic inorganic chemicals, chemical fertilisers, plant protection chemicals, cement with a clinker stage, coal-fired power, metals from ores, hazardous minerals, metallic minerals; concentrated production, business and service zones, industrial clusters; treatment of domestic solid waste and of ordinary industrial solid waste.
A permit is required at any scale for: recycling and treatment of hazardous waste; import of scrap as production material.
A permit is required for other projects and facilities when industrial wastewater to be treated reaches 150 m³/day or more, or exhaust gas reaches 100,000 m³/hour or more.
Below the levels above: environmental registration — with the provincial People’s Committee if wastewater is 50 m³/day or more or exhaust gas is 20,000 m³/hour or more; with the commune-level People’s Committee in all other cases.

During the same period, the procedure for reissuing environmental permits is not carried out; the Chairman of the provincial People’s Committee issues permits in most cases, and the Ministry of Agriculture and Environment issues them only for hazardous waste treatment facilities spanning 2 or more provinces and for scrap import facilities. The permit processing time is no more than 30 days (provincial People’s Committee) or 32 days (Ministry) from receipt of a valid dossier under Circular 09/2026/TT-BNNMT (full text (in Vietnamese)). Quick reference: Environmental permit service.

The reason for the amendment is Law No. 146/2025/QH15, effective 1 January 2026. This Law amends a series of laws in the agriculture and environment sector and repeals a number of procedures in the Law on Environmental Protection 2020, leaving the guiding decrees out of step. Earlier, Decree 08/2022/ND-CP had already been amended once by Decree 05/2025/ND-CP.

Table of Contents

1. Who still needs an environmental permit

Thresholds under Decree 48/2026/ND-CP. From 18 May 2026 to the end of 28 February 2027, the thresholds of Resolution 66.19/2026/NQ-CP apply — see the update box at the top of the article.

The discharge flow threshold is the basis for deciding whether a facility must hold a permit:

Domestic wastewater to be treated of 50 m³/day or more;
Industrial wastewater to be treated of 10 m³/day or more;
Dust and exhaust gas to be treated of 5,000 m³/hour or more.

Exceeding just one of the three thresholds above is enough to make a facility subject to the permit requirement. This is also the most commonly misunderstood point. The figure of 50 m³/day applies only to domestic wastewater; wastewater from a production line needs a permit at just 10 m³/day. A mechanical workshop or processing facility with a few dozen workers may not reach 50 m³ of domestic water per day, but it still has to hold a permit because of the flow of production wastewater.

A facility below the thresholds is not free of obligations either. Wastewater and exhaust gas must still meet the technical regulations before being discharged into the environment. Businesses must still complete environmental registration if they fall within the scope of Article 49 of the Law on Environmental Protection, still pay the environmental protection fee on wastewater, and still have to submit periodic environmental protection reports.

2. More reasons to adjust the permit, fewer exchange procedures

The procedure for exchanging environmental permits has been abolished. A business that renames its project, renames its facility or changes owner only needs to update the information in its periodic environmental protection report, without preparing a separate dossier as before.

In the opposite direction, the list of cases that require a permit adjustment has been extended. Besides changes in discharge sources, flow, pollutant parameters or discharge method, a facility must now also adjust its permit when it adds a plan to transfer wastewater to another unit for treatment, receive wastewater from another facility or reuse wastewater.

This point deserves attention because it touches what many factories are doing: investing in recirculation and reusing treated water to cut costs and reduce the volume discharged to the receiving water body. Environmentally this is a good change, but if the adjustment procedure is not carried out, the facility is still discharging in a way that does not match the content of its permit, and is still handled as a violation.

Adjustment must be distinguished from reissuance. A permit must be reissued when it expires, or when the facility increases its scale or capacity or changes technology in a way that increases adverse environmental impacts, including an increase of 10% or more in wastewater flow, dust or exhaust gas, or the generation of a new type of hazardous waste. The reissuance dossier for an expiring permit must be submitted at least 6 months in advance. Note: while Resolution 66.19/2026/NQ-CP applies (18 May 2026 – 28 February 2027), the procedure for reissuing environmental permits is not carried out; businesses whose permits are about to expire should ask the licensing authority beforehand about the applicable procedure.

The Decree also allows several projects or facilities of the same investor at the same location to be integrated into one permit, or adjacent facilities that share waste treatment works. Conversely, when a project is split, the newly formed facility has 6 months to be issued or to adjust a permit. Dossiers can be submitted through the online public service system.

3. Environmental impact assessment in stages

Article 27a has been added to Decree 08/2022/ND-CP to deal with large projects implemented over many years. A project divided into several component projects prepares an environmental impact assessment report for each component. For a project with phased investment, the project owner may choose: prepare one report for the whole project, or prepare one per phase, with each later phase inheriting the assessment results of the earlier phase.

Previously, investors had to fix the environmental plan for the entire project life cycle from the outset, even for the technology of a phase six or seven years later that could not yet be determined. The new regulation removes that obstacle. In return, choosing to work in phases means going through the appraisal sequence several times, with costs and time accumulating accordingly.

4. Inspectors may arrive without notice

Environmental protection inspections still follow the inspection law, but the Decree adds a specific exception: where necessary, an unscheduled inspection is not announced in advance, to prevent the inspected party from destroying or concealing evidence.

This comes with a duty of confidentiality. Members of the inspection team, civil servants, public employees and related parties may not give the inspected party information about the proposal or issuance of an unscheduled inspection decision, or about the plan for conducting the inspection. After the decision is announced, the Head of the inspection team gains immediate access to the areas where waste is generated, the treatment works and the discharge points.

This means that the state of the factory at the moment the team walks in is the state recorded in the minutes. Facilities used to running their treatment systems at full load when they know the inspection schedule in advance will no longer have that preparation time. Operation logs, chemical logbooks, hazardous waste transfer documents and monitoring results must also be complete at all times, not just to cope when an inspection team shows up.

5. Faster procedures, changes in who handles what

Some powers that previously belonged to the Ministry of Agriculture and Environment now move to the provincial People’s Committee, including issuing plans for handling areas with especially serious soil pollution, recognising natural heritage within the locality, and appraising environmental impact assessment reports for certain groups of projects. Businesses no longer need to go to the central level, but should identify the right contact point again before submitting a dossier.

The processing times for some procedures have also been shortened: issuing the certificate of eligibility for environmental monitoring services from 45 days to 30 days, adjusting the content of the certificate from 30 days to 20 days, Vietnam Eco-label certification from 5 days to 4 days, and exchanging and revoking certificates from 15 days to 10 days.

6. What businesses should review

The first task is to measure again. Check the actual domestic wastewater flow, production wastewater flow and exhaust gas flow together against the thresholds currently in force (see the update box at the top of the article) to find out whether the facility still falls within the scope requiring a permit.

Next, compare current operations with the content of the permit. Any change in discharge sources, flow, discharge method, or in the plan to reuse or transfer wastewater must be included in the adjustment dossier. If a permit is about to expire, prepare the reissuance dossier 6 months ahead; for dossiers submitted before 29 January 2026, check the transitional provisions and re-identify the competent authority.

The rest lies in day-to-day operation, and this is the part that takes the most effort: the system running as designed throughout production time, logs fully kept, chemicals and sludge backed by documents. The cost of delay is not small: under Decree 45/2022/ND-CP, the maximum fine for one administrative violation in the environmental field is VND 1 billion for individuals and VND 2 billion for organisations, not counting the suspension of operation of the waste source.

NGO International reviews environmental records and the condition of treatment works for businesses, prepares dossiers for issuing and adjusting environmental permits, prepares environmental impact assessment reports, designs and builds wastewater treatment systems, and provides operation consulting and upgrades for existing systems.

7. Quick Q&A on Decree 48/2026/ND-CP

From what date is the Decree effective? It was issued on 29 January 2026 and takes effect from the date of signing.

What discharge flow requires an environmental permit? From 18 May 2026 to the end of 28 February 2027, under Resolution 66.19/2026/NQ-CP: industrial wastewater to be treated of 100 m³/day or more (industries with a high pollution risk, industrial parks and clusters, solid waste treatment) or 150 m³/day or more (other projects and facilities), or exhaust gas of 100,000 m³/hour or more; facilities that recycle or treat hazardous waste or import scrap must hold a permit at any scale. Below these levels, environmental registration applies.

Does reusing wastewater require adjusting the permit? Yes. Adding a plan to reuse, transfer or receive wastewater is a case that requires adjusting the permit within its remaining term.

Is the permit exchange procedure still available? No. A change of project name, facility name or owner is updated in the periodic environmental protection report.

Legal basis

Law on Environmental Protection No. 72/2020/QH14;
Law No. 146/2025/QH15 amending and supplementing a number of articles of laws in the agriculture and environment sector;
Decree 08/2022/ND-CP dated 10 January 2022 and Decree 05/2025/ND-CP dated 6 January 2025 of the Government;
Decree 48/2026/ND-CP dated 29 January 2026 of the Government (full text on the Government Portal (in Vietnamese));
Decree 45/2022/ND-CP dated 7 July 2022 of the Government on penalties for administrative violations in the field of environmental protection;
Resolution 66.19/2026/NQ-CP dated 18 May 2026 of the Government (news item on the Government Portal (in Vietnamese));
Circular 09/2026/TT-BNNMT dated 29 January 2026 of the Ministry of Agriculture and Environment (full text (in Vietnamese)).