AgroPages-China confirms to execute Environmental Protection Tax Law from Jan. 2018 onwards-Agricultural news

By Think Real - On 25 Dec., 2016, the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress passed the China Environmental Protection Tax Law, which is about to be executed from 1 Jan., 2018 onwards. By then, the charging system for pollution discharge that has been implemented for around 30 years will exit from the historic stage. China’s tax revenue will be raised a lot after the environmental protection tax (predicted to reach USD7.2 billion each year) is collected.

The system has been shifted from pollutant discharge fee to environmental tax, which is based on the principle of tax burden shifting. Since 1979, China has established the pollutant discharge fee system and the pollutant discharge fee collected in 2015 has reached USD2.59 billion from 0.28 million payers.

The pollutants as stated in the law refer to air pollutants, water pollutants, solid wastes and noises. Either in China or other seas under the domination of China, enterprises, institutions, producers or operators directly discharging pollutants are payers of the environmental protection tax. The tax is calculated by month and applied by season.

The following are calculation methods for the tax:

• A range of USD0.17 (RMB1.2) to USD1.7 (RMB12.0) per unit for air pollutants.

• A range of USD0.20 (RMB1.4) to USD2.0 (RMB14.0) per unit for water pollutants.

• A range of USD0.72 (RMB5.0) to USD143.9 (RMB1,000) per ton for solid waste, depending on different types;

• Noise will be charged levies according to the decibels exceeding the limits imposed by the State on a scale of USD50.4 (RMB35.0) to USD1,613 (RMB11,200).

The law regulates that the following are exempt from the tax.

1. Pollution discharge from agricultural production, excluding scale raising.

2. Pollution discharge from mobile pollution sources like motor vehicle, trains, non-road mobile machine, ships and planes.

3. Pollution discharge from legally set concentrated treatment places for waste water and daily life garbage, without exceeding the standards.

4. Tax payers comprehensively use solid wastes conforming to standards.

5. Other situations approved by the State Council.

In addition, when the concentration of discharged air or water pollutants is lower than the 30% of the standards, payers only have to pay 75% of the tax.

when the concentration of discharged air or water pollutants is lower than the 50% of the standards, payers only have to pay 50% of the tax.

Upon the execution of the law, all enterprises of agricultural means of production are placed on the same place, which is favorable for fair competition. Moreover, inefficient capacities will be phased out. In the long term, it can promote the healthy development of the industry.

Li Zhonghua, who is from the CCPIA, said that the fair calculation of tax in the law will help enterprises improve their input in environmental protection and promote them to adopt clean production techniques. For the pesticide industry, enterprises with inefficient technologies are about to be phased out as middle and large ones already have treatment facilities for environmental protection.

Some representatives from enterprises of agricultural means of production think that the government and public are paying more and more attention to environmental protection, who are asking more in the field. It means that in the future, the costs of discharges will be higher and higher. The earlier enterprises adopt environmental protection facilities, the better. Besides, the government adopts favorable policies for those with less discharge, which can make up for their costs in equipment reform and operation.