Today,
people around the world live in an increasingly worse environment. Environment
problems are much heavier in the developing countries than in the developed.
China is the largest country in population and Chinas economy has been developed
quickly in recent years. Unfortunately, the economic development has cost too
much in the environment. China is one of the most polluted countries in the
world. Seven out of the worlds ten most polluted cities are in China.
Ironically, Beijing, the capital of China, is one of them.
The developed countries usually exert environmental
protection plan through three main approaches. They are direct bans, emission
caps and market incentives and disincentives. Direct bans are employed when
direct thread to human health is very heavy. Emissions caps are employed on
many pollutants: nitrous oxides, sulfur, volatile organic compounds. Sometimes,
performance standards are imposed on inputs rather than outputs. This has been
the case with the standards for automobiles, houses and major appliances. For
marketplace strategies, the governments provided tax credits, deductions and
direct producer payments to lower the price of wind energy, ethanol and solar
energy. One of the most important marketplace strategies is environmental
taxes. Environmental taxes come in three forms. First, taxes or fees used to
raise revenues for pollution cleanup. Second, environmental taxes designed to
prevent pollution by changing behavior. Third, environmental taxes intended to
finance measures to reduce consumption. One example of environmental taxes in
US is the ozone depleting chemical tax which is levied on a manufacturer,
producer, or sellers of ozone depleting chemical-containing products.
Chinas pollution situation has caused the attention of
the government. A lot of legal policies and regulations have been proscribed in
recent years. Several environmental taxes have began to impose. Three forms of
environmental taxes have been levied by the various government units. First, taxes
or fees are collected to raise revenues for pollution prevention, pollution
cleanup and pollution treatment projects. For example, extra taxes or fees are
levied on the emission of waste water, sulfur oxide or other wastes. Secondly,
some environmental taxes have been levied to prevent pollution by changing
behavior. For example, China also collects ozone depleting chemical tax or fee
to deter the use of ozone-depleting chemicals. Similar examples include the
taxes or fees imposed on coal burning-based industries in order to reduce the
emission of carbon dioxide. Third, environmental taxes intended to reduce
consumption. These taxes or fees are imposed not only to reduce environmental
pollution but also to urge people be more conservative in resources using
because China worries its resources will not be enough for its people to
consume in the future. The examples of these taxes or fees include those levied
on water, oil and coal. Although Chinese government made a lager step in
environmental taxes in recent years, environmental tax system is not
integrated. There has not been a single environmental tax levy law approved by
the National Peoples Congress till now. The environmental tax collection has
to take a coat of environmental fee collected according to the environmental
protection policies and regulations which have been not upgraded to laws so
far. China has not established environmental tax to deter the consumption of
automobiles. On the contrary, the government encourages people to buy
automobiles by reducing the tax on automobiles. This is not good for a
resource-shorted and heavily populated country.
There are some serious barriers to the proceeding of
environmental taxation in China. The state-owned enterprises are still the main
factor in the economy. They are the main pollution emission sources for most of
them are outdated in technological and equipment improvement. A lot of
production procedures which pollute environment seriously are still in use in
those enterprises. Due to the shadow of economic situation in China now, nearly
half of the state-owned enterprises perform unprofitably. Many workers have
been discharged. Imposing more environmental taxes will cause the increasing
production cost. This, in turn, will result in a larger unemployment. However,
Chinese government knows the importance of environmental protection. Several
environmental tax policies and regulations are in consideration to be upgraded
into laws and some new environmental tax policies and regulations are in
preparation. China will keep its step in the trend of global environmental
taxation. A integrate environmental taxation will be seen in the near future.
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