Experts called for heavier penalties to be imposed on chemical projects violating environmental laws after the Environment Ministry fined a project in East China 200,000 yuan ($32,130).

The ministry also halted construction of the plant in Zhangzhou, Fujian province, designed to produce 800,000 metric tons of paraxylene, or PX, a year. Paraxylene is a chemical used to manufacture pesticide, plastics and polyester, and poses a health risk in humans.

The plant was originally planned for the tourist city of Xiamen, which is also in the province. But after thousands took to the streets in the city in 2007 to protest the project, it was relocated to Zhangzhou in 2009.

According to an investigation by the ministry, the company in charge of the project, Dragon Aromatic Hydrocarbon, decided to change the raw materials used to produce PX, because they cannot be easily bought. But it did not seek approval from the ministry for the change, China Economic Net reported.

The ministry has asked the company to hand in a report of how it has corrected its violations, before Feb 28, adding that it must not resume construction before getting approval.

Experts said heavier penalties should be given to those who violate environmental laws.

"Though the ministry imposed the maximum fine stipulated by the law — 200,000 yuan — it is still too little compared with the project's 20 billion yuan investment and output value it will bring," said Ma Jun, director of the Institute of Public and Environmental Affairs, an environmental NGO.

"The light punishment fails to act as a deterrent," Ma said.

Ma said the penalty for violating environmental laws is too low to deter large chemical companies.

A senior official from the Fujian Provincial Environmental Protection Department, who declined to be named, said penalties should be raised to keep abreast with the times. The law on the penalties was introduced in 2003.

It is not the first time the PX project has violated the law. In 2007, experts from the ministry found that the owner, a sister company of the one running the plant in Zhangzhou, started the project five years ago without permission from the ministry, and the pollutants emitted never met national standards.

When the project was relocated to the Gulei Peninsula in Zhangzhou, it had full support from the provincial and municipal governments, and was labeled as "a miracle" by local media, with an investment of 20 billion yuan in less than three years, the largest amount on a single project in the city's history.

Output value of the project in the first year is estimated to be 45 billion yuan and it will pay 3 billion yuan in tax, according to the China Inspection and Quarantine Times.

Sun Li contributed to this story.

Contact the writer at wuwencong@chinadaily.com.cn