Chinese government departments of tax and environment will try
to work out a taxation plan to promote environmental protection in
2008 and the candidate plans are now under appraisal.
The environment tax, one of the key taxation policies China
plans to push forward this year, is going through careful study and
appraisal by the Ministry of Finance, State Administration of
Taxation and State Environmental Protection Administration.
Two researchers with the Ministry of Finance Sun Gang and Xu Wen
proposed three candidate plans of collecting environment tax in
their report published in November of 2007, according to
Beijing-based Caijing Magazine.
Based on the principle of "pay according to profits", the first
plan suggests government collect tax from companies in accordance
with how much they earn from the products which consume resources
or pollute the environment, said Dr. Xu Wen. He said this kind of
general taxation will be imposed on all the companies since almost
all the products consume resources.
According to the second plan, companies would pay tax according
to how much pollutant they have discharged, said Xu, adding that
the tax will target the discharge of sulfur or sulphide, carbon
dioxide, sewage, solid waste and other forms of pollutant.
He said that the third plan would ask consumers of potentially
polluting products, such as fossil fuel, ozone-consuming
commodities,fertilizer and pesticide, to pay tax.
Meanwhile, the Ministry of Finance said it might be a more
pressing task for them to raise the resource and consumption tax to
give more consideration to environmental protection while expanding
the current taxation system and adding new kinds of tax.
Beside the plan for environment tax, the country has already
adopted the law of environment protection and other regulations and
is encouraging domestic companies to introduce more
environment-friendly technology and production models, according to
the SEPA-sponsored newspaper China Environment News.
The public awareness of and participation in environment
protection is also vital in this period of time, when China is
trying to adopt a scientific and sustainable mode of development,
the newspaper said.
(Xinhua News Agency January 7, 2008)
