Environmental tax levy is imminent: Experts say the tax is the most feasible

Hu Yajun Zhou Xishi November 22, our correspondent from the Ministry of Finance Tax administration has learned that the basic idea of environmental tax levy in China has been set, from an easy to operate point of view, the initial use of the "Tax Reform" program, is currently seeking local views.　　An expert in the Ministry of Finance's Environmental Tax Research group explained to our correspondent that "fee change tax" may not be the optimal solution, but this is the most feasible scheme so far. Previously, the academic community on environmental taxes have "beneficiary pay", "polluter pays" and "user pays" three kinds of tax ideas.　　Mazhong, dean of the School of Environmental Studies at Renmin University, said environmental taxes would adopt the internationally accepted "polluter pays" principle and levy on the emitters. "Environmental taxes will certainly be levied during the ' Twelve-Five ' period."　　"Participation in the State administration of taxation," China Environmental Tax Research project of the Ministry of Finance Science Research Institute researcher Suming told reporters that the introduction of environmental tax specific time, will take into account the macroeconomic situation, will choose a better economic situation, low inflation rate launched. The first sulphur and sewage tax horse introduced, in the levy scheme, had previously considered the raw materials, emissions and consumption of three kinds of collection channels.　　Finally, considering that emission charges can be adopted from the current environmental protection system of the existing sewage charging system, compared to the other two ways, the implementation of the technology is the least difficult and most easy to implement, so the current environmental tax scheme adopts the levy on emissions.　　Ma long engaged in environmental tax research work, was the national Development and Reform Commission's "Environmental protection fee reform theory and Practice Research" group leader, is currently responsible for the National Social Science Fund major project "China Environmental Tax system Research" project.　　The above participation in the Ministry of Finance Environmental Tax Research group experts revealed that, in the realization of the path, the environmental tax will be introduced by tax, under the classification of items, for the technical feasibility of consideration, relying on environmental pollution charges monitoring system tax, in the initial stage of environmental taxes, including sulfur tax and sewage tax.　　Among them, the sewage tax mainly for cod (chemical oxygen demand) emissions collection, and carbon tax because of the lack of measurement system, temporarily excluded from the collection catalogue. "The most conservative option is to levy sulphur and sewage taxes only on industrial enterprises, and whether the sewage treatment plant is taxed is not yet established."　　Said the horse. The introduction of the tax on sewage treatment plants, there are two views, one is that the sewage treatment plant as a general enterprise, based on the discharge of cod sewage tax, the other is because the municipal sewage treatment plant has been dealt with pollution, do not levy.　　If levied, it has a great impact on the sewage treatment plant.　　Reporter from Jiangxi, Hubei two major environmental tax pilot area learned that, taking into account the capacity of enterprises to avoid the transfer of tax burden to consumers to cause further price increases, inflation and so on, after the implementation of "fee reform", in the tax rate, the total amount of levy, compared with the previous charges will not be much change. "Tax regulation and income function are closely linked, if the environmental tax rate is too low, the tax is very small, can not play a role in regulation, not a meaningfulTaxes。　　Ma said that in the initial stage of environmental tax, tax rates can be from low design, but in the long run, to make the environmental tax to play a role, we should expand the scope of the levy, raise the standard. In addition, after the levy of tax, the next step should be to focus on greening the overall tax system, so that the levy of environmental taxes really become a beginning of the overall reform of the green tax system. "Only in the level of tax reform, the significance of environmental tax levy is not obvious."　　Said the horse. It's not going to be a one-size-fits-all tax rate. Xia Qing, deputy dean of the Chinese Academy of Environmental Sciences, said due to the climatic conditions, economic development level, population density and the degree of demand for clean environment, environmental carrying capacity and other factors, the same pollutant or the same amount of pollution, in different regions,　　The degree of marginal social harm will be different. "The environment has zonal characteristics, how and a one-size-fits-all tax co-ordination?"　　Xia Qing that this is the problem that environmental tax levy must solve. An expert on environmental tax Research at the finance Department of the Treasury said that, from a theoretical standpoint, the optimal tax rate should be designed to minimize the total cost of pollution prevention, based on the extent to which each pollutant has a marginal impact on the nature of the pollution in the world.　　It can also impel the enterprises to take full account of the adverse effects of production activities on the ecological environment when choosing the site, forcing the enterprises to choose a more reasonable location, emission intensity and clean production. "But this tax rate design is very complex, feasibility is still being studied, the idea is not to be unified in the national implementation of a single tax rate, but the specific decentralization of the number of places, but also in the study."　　said the expert.　　The horse admits that, considering the local conditions, it seems to be more appropriate to set the tax rate, but if completely decentralized to the place, I am afraid some local governments may be for investment, increase GDP considerations, levy a lower environmental tax.　　It is speculated that because the tax system is based on the existing sewage charges, the environmental tax is likely to inherit the idea of sharing the revenue from the design of the current sewage charging system. "Environmental taxes do tend to be central to the sharing of taxes." An expert who declined to be named at the Environmental Planning Institute's study on Environmental taxes confirmed the speculation to reporters. He revealed that in the current discussion, the IRS opinion is inclined to the environmental tax by the central government legislation, by the local tax authorities, and then in a certain proportion between the central and local government distribution. In the divided, "the place occupies the big head".