BEIJING - China's environment watchdog has meted out punishments to several localities and enterprises for their failure to conform to pollutant reduction requirements.

The Ministry of Environmental Protection (MEP) has completed the annual assessment of all provincial localities and eight central government-owned enterprises on the reduction of major pollutants in 2012, a news release from the MEP said Tuesday.

Outstanding problems were found during the assessment, the MEP said, adding that it decided to penalize relevant localities and enterprises.

For instance, it found that power generation industries in Inner Mongolia autonomous region, Henan and Guizhou provinces, as well as China Huadian Corporation failed to fulfill their denitration and desulfurization targets.

As a penalty, their applications for building, retrofitting or expanding coal-fired power plants have been suspended.

In addition, six cities in Inner Mongolia autonomous region and Henan, Hubei, Guangdong, Hainan and Gansu provinces, respectively, were punished for poor sewage treatment facilities and management.

Sixteen sewage treatment plants and the paper industry in Nanning city, Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region, were given a deadline to correct their practices.

Another 15 enterprises were punished for problematic desulfurization facilities or monitoring data forgery.