The reporter of Economic Information Daily recently investigated the pilot situation of water resource tax in Hebei and found that since the introduction of water resource tax in July, 2016, the tax revenue has increased significantly. The first five collection periods of water resource tax, hebei province declared more than 0.7 billion yuan of water resource tax. At the same time, the reform forced some enterprises to reduce the use of groundwater, change the way of water use, and take water-saving measures.
The reporter also learned from the industry that the national level will make an assessment and summary of Hebei’s pilot experience, and the water resource tax pilot will be expanded within the year. Some places are also actively preparing for declaration. Industry experts pointed out that water resources and industrial structure should be considered comprehensively, and the place with perfect system connection is expected to be included in this round of expansion pilot.
Open source Hebei tax revenue increased significantly
On July 1, 2016, China officially started the water resource tax pilot. In view of the wide range of water resources and the complicated situation, in order to ensure the stable and orderly implementation of the reform, China’s first and only water resource tax pilot was launched in Hebei province. Specifically, Hebei adopts the method of water resources fees-for-tax reform, bringing surface water and groundwater into the scope of taxation, implementing the calculation of quantity quota, taking groundwater for high water consumption industries, over-planned water use and over-exploitation areas of groundwater, increase the tax standard appropriately, and maintain the original burden level of normal production and living water.
After Hebei’s water resources fees-for-tax reform, tax revenue increased significantly. The reporter of Economic Information Daily learned from the local taxation bureau of Hebei province that in the first five collection periods of water resource tax, there were 13325 water resource taxpayers in the whole province. The declared water resource tax exceeded 0.7 billion yuan, and the total amount of taxable water was 0.793 billion cubic meters. Among them, the surface water is 0.087 billion yuan, accounting for 12% of the total declaration, and the groundwater is 0.633 billion yuan, accounting for 88% of the total declaration.
Statistical analysis shows that the income of water resource tax has obviously reached a high level compared with the original income of water resource fee. By contrast, in 2015, Hebei’s water resource fee income per month 0.078 billion yuan, and after the reform, the water resource tax income per month 0.143 billion yuan, an increase of 0.065 billion yuan compared with income per month in the past three years, an increase of 83%.
It is understood that there are two main reasons for increasing income: First, increasing income through policies. At the same time of reform and fees-for-tax reform, it raised the collection standards of enterprises that use groundwater, take water from over-exploited areas and consume high water, thus increasing income. The second is to increase managerial income. After the implementation of fees-for-tax reform, the rigidity of tax revenue increased, and the tax revenue was strictly calculated and collected, and the tax revenue was increased.
Specifically, “before and after the reform, the tax burden of water resources changed by aggregate performance to three increases by Forty all, which is generally in line with the original intention of policy design.” Zhu Qingyu, chief economist of Hebei Local Taxation Bureau, said that “three increases” means that the tax burden of enterprises that extract groundwater increases, the tax burden of enterprises in over-mining areas increases, and the tax burden of special industries increases; “Forty all” means that the burden of domestic water for residents is flat, the normal water burden of enterprises is basically flat, while the agricultural water burden remains unchanged.
He also said, “increasing income is not the ultimate goal of fees-for-tax reform. The reform is mainly to solve the chronic disease of water scarcity and waste, and the significance of regulation is greater than that of finance. The increase of income in the early stage of reform is a normal phenomenon. As enterprises plus-sized water saving, tax revenue will show a gradual decline process.”
Forced water-saving effect began to show
Judging from the situation that the water resource tax has been levied for more than half a year, the reform has forced some enterprises to reduce the use of groundwater, change the way of water use, and take measures to save water, in general, it shows the policy effect of “three forces and two promotions.
First of all, the differential tax rate forces the usage of groundwater to decrease steadily. The reform plus-sized the tax burden difference between groundwater and surface water. In order to reduce costs, some enterprises began to adjust the water structure and reduce the use of groundwater. For example, Tangshan three friends group, which is located in a seriously over-exploitation area of groundwater, mainly extracts groundwater from this enterprise. In the past, the water resource fee per cubic meter of water was 2 yuan; After fees-for-tax reform of water resources, because the mining area of enterprises belongs to the area of serious over-exploitation of groundwater in Hebei province, each cubic meter of water has to pay 6 yuan water resource tax, and the tax standard is three times higher than the original water resource fee. After the reform, the enterprise was connected to the public pipe network, and the proportion of groundwater consumption decreased from 60% before the reform to 8.7% after the reform. The Bath Business in Sanhe city, Langfang, has been changed to tap water, and groundwater is no longer extracted.
Gao Huimin, head of the First Division of Taxation Administration of Hebei Local Taxation Bureau, said that after fees-for-tax reform, under the circumstances that the collection and management efforts were continuously strengthened and the number of taxpayers increased month by month, the water intake of groundwater did not increase but decreased, and the usage of groundwater was effectively controlled, the goal of inhibiting groundwater overexploitation has been preliminarily reached.
Secondly, a substantial increase in tax has forced special industries to change the way of using water. In particular, the response of golf courses that consume water is obvious. Almost all golf courses in Hebei province have begun to change the way of water use and take measures to intensively use water.
In addition, the increase of water cost forces high water consumption industrial enterprises to strengthen water saving measures. After the reform, industries with high water consumption such as steel, cement and chemical industry are facing a significant incremental pressure in water cost. The collection of water resource tax forces steel enterprises to invest water-saving and environmental protection facilities plus-sized one after another, equipped with advanced sewage treatment and water recycling systems.
On the other hand, the reform of water resource tax has promoted the “double promotion” of water resource tax collection and management level and water resource management level “. Zhu Qingyu said that the departments of finance, local tax, water conservancy and so on cooperated closely, and established a number of working mechanisms to jointly build “water conservancy approval, tax declaration, local tax collection, joint supervision, information sharing” the management mode of multi-department co-governance has formed a joint management force.
“Before fees-for-tax reform, the tax collection is not as strong as this. If the fee is high, he can bargain with you. But after fees-for-tax reform, we strictly enforce the tax law, which can be said to be full coverage, as long as he uses water, we will collect it in full.” Su Guangyuan, director of local taxation bureau of Tangshan Numbudh Economic Development Zone, said.
Water resource tax pilot will be increased during the expansion year
According to the “key points of water resources management in the whole province in 2017” recently issued by Hebei province, the pilot reform of water resource tax will be continuously deepened in 2017, supporting policies will be studied and formulated, and the water resource tax for agricultural use will be levied in an all-round way; complete the upgrading and transformation of the water intake information management system, and strive to seamlessly connect with the non-agricultural water intake monitoring system to realize the automation of water intake metering; Carry out the pilot policy evaluation and summarize the experience of the reform pilot.
Industry experts pointed out that the water resource tax reform can use tax leverage to adjust the demand for water, effectively strengthen the protection of water resources and promote the sustainable utilization of water resources. At the same time, promote enterprises to change their production methods. The pilot in Hebei is to take the lead in clearing fees and establishing taxes in the pilot areas, and improve the resource tax system and the way for the whole country.
According to the path planning of resource tax reform, on the basis of summarizing the pilot experience, the Ministry of Finance and the State Administration of Taxation will choose other provinces to gradually expand the scope of the pilot, and will be pushed across the country after the conditions are ripe. The reporter learned that a third-party assessment will be carried out on the pilot situation of water resource tax in Hebei province. After the assessment is completed, appropriate places will be selected to expand the pilot within the year.
A local finance department person who is actively preparing to declare the water resource tax pilot told the reporter of Economic Information Daily that he is now actively making preparations and preparations to try to be included in the pilot. The core principle of fees-for-tax reform is horizontal rotation, but for over-exploitation of groundwater, there is still a direction in the measures. He also pointed out that the fees-for-tax reform of water resources has put forward new requirements for local financial and taxation departments, specifically: “The technical allocation of the collection and management departments should be in place; The interest chain of the collection site and provincial governments at all levels should be straightened out, and don’t fight; the original system and the new system should be connected. In addition, after the fees become taxes, public income will be included in the overall arrangement, and there will certainly be a reconstruction of benefits, which should also be straightened out.”
“It is necessary to expand the pilot water resource tax.” Jiang Zhen, an associate researcher at the China Finance and Economy Strategic Research Institute of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, told the reporter of Economic Information Daily that although water resources are renewable resources, China is still a water-deficient country as a whole. Bringing water into the scope of resource tax is in line with China’s actual national conditions and is of great significance for optimizing the use of water resources.
Specifically, Jiang Zhen said that water resources and industrial structure should be considered comprehensively. The function of water resource tax is to adjust the water structure, save water and build an eco-friendly economic development model. In his view, “in areas where water resources are relatively scarce and industrial structure is biased, the effect of reform will be more obvious.”
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the reporter of “Economic Information Daily” recently investigated the pilot situation of water resource tax in Hebei and found that since the introduction of water resource tax in July 2016, the tax revenue has increased significantly, and the first five collection periods of water resource tax, hebei province declared more than 0.7 billion yuan of water resource tax