China's Ministry of Finance (MOF) said on Monday that receivers of oil shipments entering Chinese waters will have to pay a 0.3 yuan (S$0.06) per tonne duty from July on behalf of a marine pollution fund, Xinhua News Agency reported.

China's ports received about 102.5 million tonnes of crude and oil products in the year to April.

Xinhua said the regulation, jointly issued by the MOF and the Ministry of Transport, would require "receivers or agencies"of mineral oil shipments including crude oil and heavy diesel to pay 0.3 yuan on every tonne that enters Chinese waters.
 
It said the revenue would go to a marine pollution fund set up to compensate victims of oil spills such as those in the Penglai 19-3 oilfield in Bohai Bay in June 2011.

U.S. energy giant ConocoPhillips, operator of the oilfield, was widely criticised in domestic media for the accident. It paid 1.09 billion yuan in compensation for the spills while China National Offshore Oil Corp and the Chinese unit of ConocoPhillips paid 480 million yuan and 113 million yuan, respectively.

Foreign oil industry executives have said the new environmental protection standards China put in place following the spill are unrealistically onerous, and that foreign companies are being unfairly targeted.