Ulgener

-T.Duygu Yazici Araci

On March 30, 2023, the “Law on Amending the Environment Law and Some Laws and Decree Law No. 375” (“Amendment”) was adopted by the Turkish Grand National Assembly and this Amendment entered into force on April 5, 2023. With the said Amendment, two important changes were made in the Environmental Law, as well as some regulations on other issues. It was stated that the need for a more reasonable regulation of pollution fines was stated as the reason for this change.

Pursuant to the amendment, the phrase “10 Turkish liras” in sub-paragraph (4) of subparagraph (i) of the first paragraph of Article 20 of the Environment Law was changed to “11.59 Turkish liras” and the following sentence has been added after the phrase “administrative fine is imposed” in the first paragraph;

““However, for tankers, ships and other marine vehicles larger than one hundred thousand gross tonnage, an administrative fine is imposed on the basis of one hundred thousand gross tonnage.”

Accordingly, in the event that tankers, dry cargo ships and other marine vehicles cause pollution with garbage, sewage and gray water, the amount of fines we published in our newsletter at the beginning of this year will change as follows;

Up to 1,000 GT
TL 502.48 per GT
(approx. USD 25 as per April 2023 exchange rate)
TL 1,507.44 per GT for companies
(approx. USD 75 as per April 2023 exchange rate)

Between 1,000 and 5.000 GT
TL 100.50 per GT
(approx. USD 5 as per April 2023 exchange rate)
TL 301.50 per GT for companies
(approx. USD 15 as per April 2023 exchange rate)

Over 5,000 GT
TL 50.23 TL 11.59 per GT
(decreased from approx. USD 2.5 to USD 0.5 as per April 2023 exchange rate)
TL 150.69 TL 34.77 per GT for companies (decreased from approx. USD 7.5 to USD 1.5 as per April 2023 exchange rate)

Additionally, if the tanker, ship and other marine vehicles causing environmental pollution are larger than one hundred thousand gross tons, an administrative fine will be imposed on the basis of one hundred thousand gross tons, i.e. no addition will be made to the penalty amount for over one hundred thousand gross tonnage.