China’s revenue from environmental tax reached 9.68 billion yuan in the first half of this year, a gain of 1.75 billion yuan over the same period of last year, an increase of 22.1% year on year, the latest data from the State Administration of Taxation shows.
The data shows that the revenue from environmental tax totaled 5.22 billion yuan in the second quarter, a gain of 760 million yuan from the first quarter.
In the first half of the year, the country saw decreasing chemical oxygen demand and ammonia nitrogen of major water pollutants, as well as the declared emissions of major atmospheric pollutants such as sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxides, compared with the same period last year.
At the same time, the tax-free emission tax policy for urban and rural domestic sewage centralized treatment sites has promoted the direct discharge of environmentally-discharged water pollutants into urban pipe network emissions, and improved the efficiency of centralized sewage treatment.
Through the implementation of the tax exemption policy for comprehensive utilization of solid waste taxpayers, the comprehensive utilization of more than 10 million tons of solid waste was promoted in the first half of the year.
China started to levy tax on businesses and public institutions that discharge pollutants from April onward, based on the country's Environmental Protection Tax Law, which came into effect on Jan 1 this year.
The law, which relates to air, water, solid waste and noise pollution, encourages environmentally friendly production models for high-quality economic development.
The main purpose of the new rules is to protect and improve the environment, and to reduce the emission of pollutants, Wang said.
By the end of 2017, the country collected pollutant discharge fees of more than 22 billion yuan from nearly 330,000 enterprises, up by 2.5 billion yuan or 12.3 percent from 2016, according to data from the State Administration of Taxation.
According to the Finance Ministry, local governments will have more autonomy to set a range for the taxes－from 1.2 yuan to 12 yuan for each unit of air and water pollution emitted－to reflect the different regional environmental conditions.
(Source: ourjiangsu.com)
