Once the bonded tax is levied, there are at least three advantages: one is to reduce pollution; Second, increase the operating cost of polluting enterprises, so that enterprises have the pressure and power to protect the ecological environment; Third, increase government revenue so that the government has more funds for environmental governance and supports, encourages and subsidizes enterprises to develop environmental technologies and implement environmental projects.
It is urgent to promote the collection of market-oriented environmental protection tax for green industries
"Do a good job in environmental protection tax legislation," included in this year's government work report. Chen jining, minister of the ministry of environmental protection, said that many of the benefits of cleaner production technologies and governance measures have not been released because environmental policies have not been deeply integrated with economic and development policies.
Industry insiders pointed out that China's environmental protection industry is faced with insufficient investment funds and supervision. Under the severe environmental situation, it is urgent to use tax revenue to regulate the relationship between development and protection and to allocate environmental resources through the market mechanism.
Implementation of "polluter responsibility
As for how to push forward the reform of environmental protection tax, minister of finance Lou jiwei said that environmental protection tax is mainly to change the current fee into a tax, and we cannot expect environmental protection tax to solve problems like air pollution and haze. Problems like this are everyone's responsibility. Water pollution, charging for effluent discharge; Enterprises and individuals that cause air pollution will also be punished.
The ministry of finance suggested in the study that the environmental tax should try to complete the relevant legislative process in 2015, and be formally levied in 2016. At the initial stage of collection, it could be considered to double or higher the current sewage charge standard. In 2018, we will further raise the tax rates on coal resources and environmental protection. A lower level of carbon tax will be introduced in the later period of the 13th five-year plan (2019-2020).
The fiscal and tax policies to control haze have brought both impact and new opportunities.
According to the research, the negative effects of the new tax policy are mainly reflected in the increase of prices and the total tax burden of enterprises. But fiscal and tax policies to combat smog will also bring new opportunities. The rising cost of coal will make other alternative energy sources more competitive, and the use of better energy will boost other industries, the Treasury report said. In the long run, macroeconomic indicators, including GDP, will benefit. Real GDP in 2020, imports and exports in 2025, and total consumption in 2030 will begin to show long-term effects, and the negative impact of taxation will start to turn into a positive impact.
At the same time, lu zhongmei, a deputy to the National People's Congress and President of hubei university of economics, said in an interview that the environmental tax legislation is an important measure to protect the environment through the market mechanism and a specific institutional arrangement to implement the "polluter is responsible" principle established by the new environmental law. The environmental tax aims to correct market failures. Sun youhai, a member of the national advisory committee on the environment, said the tax will play a positive role in raising the cost of breaking the law for polluters, reducing the burden of social pollution control and raising funds for environmental protection.
According to industry estimates, in 2013, the total amount of pollutant discharge fees that should be collected, mainly including sulfur dioxide, nitrogen oxide, chemical oxygen demand and ammonia nitrogen, was 57.5 billion yuan, but 21.6 billion yuan was actually collected that year. "Collecting environmental taxes is not only good for the environmental industry, but also provides more opportunities for the wider green industry." Lanhong, deputy director of the ecological finance research center at renmin university of China, said in an interview.
Tax is urgently needed to leverage clean production
In fact, many international experiences show that the collection of environmental protection tax can change the cost-benefit ratio and force it to re-evaluate the resource allocation efficiency of the enterprise. At the same time, environmental taxes also have an impact on the economic decisions and behavioral choices of other enterprises.
According to incomplete statistics, the European Union, the United States, Australia, the Netherlands, Poland, Italy, Canada, Ireland, Finland and other developed countries have used tax means to improve environmental pollution.
Jia kang, a member of the national committee of the Chinese people's political consultative conference (CPPCC), pointed out that the collection of environmental protection tax will help change the concept of focusing on the administrative mechanism of environmental protection and solve the problems that restrict the development of China's environmental protection industry, such as insufficient investment funds and insufficient supervision. "Collecting environmental taxes is not only good for the environmental industry, but also provides more opportunities for the wider green industry." "Said LAN hong, deputy director of the ecological finance research center at renmin university of China and academic adviser to the unep's financial action institute, in an interview.
For example, she said, foreign carbon taxes increase the cost of fossil fuels, meaning that new energy sources are relatively cheap given the fixed market demand. Through the regulation of environmental protection tax, the demand will be directed to cleaner products in the production process, which is the growth point of the new normal economy.
The outline of the 12th five-year plan for national economic and social development clearly calls for "improving the resource tax system" during the 12th five-year plan, including comprehensively reforming the resource tax and actively promoting the reform of environmental taxes and fees. The measures to comprehensively deepen reform decided at the third plenary session of the 18th CPC central committee also include giving play to the basic role of the market in resource allocation.
The industry believes that environmental protection tax is an important measure to use the market mechanism to protect the environment. Environmental protection tax legislation, for the market mechanism to provide protection against pollution. In fact, as early as December 2011, the ministry of finance agreed to levy the tax in due course. In December 2013, the environmental protection tax plan has been submitted to the state council and is under review according to the procedures.
Resistance to be broken
Clearly, the benefits are clear. The direct benefit is to increase the cost of production and operation of polluting enterprises and industries, force enterprises and industries to pay attention to environmental protection, so as to achieve the goal of economic restructuring and transformation and upgrading. Second, environmental taxes supplement the government's fiscal revenue, which can be used for environmental governance, and subsidize enterprises to develop environmental technology, new energy and other public services. But beyond these "technical" obstacles, conflicts of interest are inevitable.
Zhang bin, director of the tax research office of the institute of financial and economic strategy at the Chinese academy of social sciences, said: "the main source of resistance is that additional tax burdens are imposed on industries and enterprises that previously caused environmental pollution, resulting in higher production costs, which are then passed on to higher prices."
This price rise can lead to two results, one is the product price, the price mechanism function, consumption reduction, related industry shrinks, it achieved the purpose of environmental protection, or heavy pollution enterprise equipment renovation, may buy environmental protection equipment, in order to realize clean production, made from pay tax, this kind of circumstance also can attain the goal of environmental protection. However, increased investment itself will lead to higher costs, which will be transmitted to consumers downstream. For the necessities with low consumption elasticity, such as water and electricity, the interest distribution of the middle and low-income class will be involved. Second, the impact on the macro economy, is mainly reflected in price fluctuations.
"For example, once the carbon tax is imposed, the tax burden on enterprises in the power industry and other industries will increase, which may be transmitted to the downstream of the industrial chain, resulting in the rise of electricity price and other commodity prices, causing inflation and thus affecting the lives of residents." Zhang said.
In response to possible resistance, zhang bin suggested that a combination of policies should be used to promote economic restructuring and the development of environmental protection industries. "First of all, green taxes only one of policy tools, not, should be the use of the combination of policy, such as through compulsory administrative measures, strict enforcement of emission standards, or the introduction of a more market-oriented emissions trading, not all the expectations of the green taxes on this policy, it only makes efforts to greater resistance. Second, policies need to take into account the actual national conditions and the forward-looking stage of national development, taking into account the actual bearing capacity of enterprises.
Li quanzeng, a researcher at the institute of finance and science of the ministry of finance, pointed out publicly: "in the legislation of environmental protection tax and the implementation of environmental protection after-tax, the levy is not a one-size-fits-all approach to all enterprises, but a differential treatment of the degree of pollution of enterprises, which is conducive to economic transformation and industrial restructuring. Solar companies are a typical example. Because of the long cycle, no one is willing to do the front-end research and development of solar energy, and few enterprises are willing to do the back-end. Most enterprises are willing to do the middle-end, that is, equipment manufacturing. The pollution in this link is very serious. These enterprises will be greatly affected by the environmental protection tax.
Experts widely expected that steel, cement, flat glass, electrolytic aluminum, coal chemical industry and other industries with serious overcapacity in the implementation of environmental taxes, will be affected. "However, as the front end of the industrial chain, the thermal power industry is also related to the cost of living of enterprises and residents, so some subsidy policies should be considered." As for the living problems of middle and low income people caused by price transmission downstream, it is also necessary to cooperate with fiscal subsidies to offset and dissolve the resistance of environmental protection tax, zhang bin said.