China's Ministry of Finance will impose a duty on all oil shipments entering Chinese waters beginning from July this year, said the China Daily on Tuesday, with the proceeds set to go into a new marine pollution compensation fund to be utilised during an oil spill.

On Monday, the Ministry of Finance (MOF) and the Ministry of Transport (MOT) issued a joint statement proposing the new regulation, which stated that any receiving company - both locally and abroad - should pay a 0.3 yuan (4 cents) per ton levy for oil shipments that pass through China's waters.

According to the MOF, the move was aimed at "protecting the country's oceanic environment", with the money collected used to compensate victims of oil spills in China.

The MOF cited the victims of the 2011 Bohai Bay oil spill as possible recipients of the fund. Last June, a series of oil spills happened at the Penglai 19-3 oilfield in the Bohai Bay, which caused undisclosed environmental and economic damages to the nearby residents.

"The environmental impact caused by the oil leak is long-term," noted the China Daily at the time.

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Both operators of the oilfield - the state-owned China National Offshore Oil Corporation (CNOOC) and ConocoPhillips - were also heavily criticized for their failure to control the leak.

According to state media reports, the spill managed to pollute over 6,200 square km of its waters- an area about nine times the size of Singapore - and caused huge losses in the tourism and aquatic farming industries of Liaoning and Hebei provinces.

Some foreign oil industry executives though have questioned whether China's oil levy was unfairly targeting foreign companies. China's ongoing maritime territorial disputes with their Asian neighbours also threaten to complicate matters further.

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Still, the fund's establishment is crucial to promote "the sustainable and healthy development of the marine transport industry," insisted the MOF.

A committee will be established by the MOF, MOT, Ministry of Agriculture and several other departments as well as representatives from oil companies in order to oversee the management of the fund.

ast year, CNOOC and the Chinese unit of ConocoPhillips paid 480 million yuan ($75 million) and 113 million yuan ($17 million), respectively, for environmental protection efforts in the Bohai Bay.