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China has strengthened the implementation of environment laws that the numbers of polluting companies punished almost doubled in July, which would go stronger with other measures to deter polluters and reduce the air pollution in winter.

“In July, 3,416 cases involving with various violations of environment law and regulations were found and punished nationwide, an increase of 92 percent year-on-year,” said Tian Weiyong, head of the Ministry of Environmental Protection’s environment monitoring bureau, on Tuesday.

Among the violations, 835 companies were required to suspend production or shut down, increasing by 128 percent than the numbers in July last year, and 255 companies were transferred to judicial organs due to their severe pollution, an increase of 55 percent, Tian said.

The revised Environmental Protection Law and its supportive regulations, effective since Jan 1, 2015, have presented the environment officials a wider range of power in punishment like sealing the production equipment, issuing daily, uncapped fines, suspending production or shutting down, and transferring the cases with severe pollution to judicial organs for further investigation, making it China’s strictest anti-pollution legislation, as the ministry said.

Tian added in the first seven months, the country’s environment bureaus have issued the daily, uncapped fines totaling 761 million yuan ($116 million), a heavy blow to the polluters.

Data in the first seven months from the ministry showed provinces with severe pollution especially the smog-prone provinces have taken tougher strikes to the polluting companies.

The Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region and its neighboring Shandong, Shanxi and Henan provinces, in total, have punished over 4,400 polluting companies with the tools granted by the law and regulation, accounting for 21 percent of the national totality.

Besides, the ministry has praised Shandong and three other provinces for their the good performance in implementing the law and regulations in July.

But for the city cluster in Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region and its neighboring provinces, prone to hit by smog especially in winter, they have to do more in a bid to tackle the air pollution in the coming winter.

The ministry warned on Sunday weather conditions are likely to be warmer and more humid due to the Arctic icecap melting and warming of Pacific Ocean, “unfavorable to disperse pollutants”.

The 28 major cities in the region will have extra inspections from the ministry and the central government in autumn and winter, said Liu Changgen, deputy head of the inspection bureau from the ministry on Friday, adding that the performances of tackling air pollution will affect the government’s officials annual evaluation, making them give more attention.

On the other hand, the ongoing inspection sent by the central government, covering Shandong and other seven provincial regions, have received over 44,100 public reports on pollution, and over 4,100 government officials were held accountable for their poor performance in environmental protection, the ministry said on Tuesday.