7.6 Pollutant Discharge Fee/Tax
167
volume, two additional fees will be charged. If the enterprise’s production equipment
or product is in the governmental eliminated list for industrial structure adjustment,
the fee will also be doubled. Moreover, if the discharge concentration is less than
50% of the national or local standards, the fee will be halved (NDRC et al. 2014b).
Therefore, the method developed levies both on discharge standard and volume,
while encouraging clean production and punishing pollution (Shen and Guna 2018).
In 2018, the state began to levy an environmental protection tax instead of the
pollution discharge fee. In more than 30 years, the pollution discharge fee has evolved
from a standard-exceeding levy to a pollutant discharge levy, together with the
increasing rate and structure reform from single factor to multi-factor, and has finally
been reformed as a tax. During this process, the most controversial issue has been
the relationship between the fee collection and worsening water pollution. The small
and decreasing amount collected and the increasingly degrading water environment
have incurred extensive criticisms. In response, the government prepared to reform
the fee into an environmental tax in 2015.
3
Another discussion is the collection of fees levied on wastewater treatment plants,
which are the largest point-source pollutant dischargers in China. While SEPA
preferred to collect such fees, the Ministry of Construction, the administrative department of these plants, did not. The 1993 Notice on Collecting Wastewater Discharge
Fee required payment (National Planning Commission, Ministry of Financing 1993),
but in 1997, the Ministry of Financing and other bodies specified that only standardexceeding fees should be collected (Ministry of Financing et al. 1997). At present,
according to the 2003 Management Methods of Pollutant Discharge Fee Rate, if
the discharge level meets the relevant standards, no fee is charged; if not, an additional fee is collected for organic pollutants (COD, BOD, total organic carbon), TS
(suspended solids), and E.coli, while ammonia and total phosphorus are not levied.
However, both fees are collected for wastewater plants if the facility is situated in an
industrial park. The tax follows the same arrangements.
7.7 Some Issues
Water pricing has five important objectives: revenue sufficiency, economic efficiency,
equity and fairness, income redistribution, and resource conservation. Moreover, the
designing of price policies and tariff structures should consider public and political acceptability, simplicity and transparency, and net revenue stability and ease of
implementation (Boland and Whittington 2000). However, some of these considerations, such as political and public acceptability, may clash with the basic objectives
of pricing.
3 The draft has reported to the State Council and environmental protection fee-to-tax reform fastens,
https://gb.cri.cn/45731/2014/11/05/7493s4754785.htm.
167
volume, two additional fees will be charged. If the enterprise’s production equipment
or product is in the governmental eliminated list for industrial structure adjustment,
the fee will also be doubled. Moreover, if the discharge concentration is less than
50% of the national or local standards, the fee will be halved (NDRC et al. 2014b).
Therefore, the method developed levies both on discharge standard and volume,
while encouraging clean production and punishing pollution (Shen and Guna 2018).
In 2018, the state began to levy an environmental protection tax instead of the
pollution discharge fee. In more than 30 years, the pollution discharge fee has evolved
from a standard-exceeding levy to a pollutant discharge levy, together with the
increasing rate and structure reform from single factor to multi-factor, and has finally
been reformed as a tax. During this process, the most controversial issue has been
the relationship between the fee collection and worsening water pollution. The small
and decreasing amount collected and the increasingly degrading water environment
have incurred extensive criticisms. In response, the government prepared to reform
the fee into an environmental tax in 2015.
3
Another discussion is the collection of fees levied on wastewater treatment plants,
which are the largest point-source pollutant dischargers in China. While SEPA
preferred to collect such fees, the Ministry of Construction, the administrative department of these plants, did not. The 1993 Notice on Collecting Wastewater Discharge
Fee required payment (National Planning Commission, Ministry of Financing 1993),
but in 1997, the Ministry of Financing and other bodies specified that only standardexceeding fees should be collected (Ministry of Financing et al. 1997). At present,
according to the 2003 Management Methods of Pollutant Discharge Fee Rate, if
the discharge level meets the relevant standards, no fee is charged; if not, an additional fee is collected for organic pollutants (COD, BOD, total organic carbon), TS
(suspended solids), and E.coli, while ammonia and total phosphorus are not levied.
However, both fees are collected for wastewater plants if the facility is situated in an
industrial park. The tax follows the same arrangements.
7.7 Some Issues
Water pricing has five important objectives: revenue sufficiency, economic efficiency,
equity and fairness, income redistribution, and resource conservation. Moreover, the
designing of price policies and tariff structures should consider public and political acceptability, simplicity and transparency, and net revenue stability and ease of
implementation (Boland and Whittington 2000). However, some of these considerations, such as political and public acceptability, may clash with the basic objectives
of pricing.
3 The draft has reported to the State Council and environmental protection fee-to-tax reform fastens,
https://gb.cri.cn/45731/2014/11/05/7493s4754785.htm.