Water Resources Tax Research In China

Water is a necessary resource for human survival and it is essential to everyone.China is a country with a large population.The per capita water resources possessed by it are far below the international minimum standards.Saving and protecting water resources are of great significance to people's production and life.China started to collect water resource fees for water resources shortly after the founding of New China.However,the country does not have unified regulations,and local governments should establish collection standards based on actual conditions.China's water resource fee collection standards are generally low and cannot achieve the effect of protecting water resources.Instead,it results in serious waste of water resources.At the same time,water resources fees as a kind of administrative fees and compulsory insufficiency have resulted in lower paid-up rates and increased financial burden.With the rapid development of economy and society,people's demand for water resources is gradually increasing,and the original water resource fee system is increasingly unable to adapt to the development of the future society.Therefore,China's water resource fee system was adopted on July 1,2016.To carry out reforms,Hebei Province was chosen to pilot the levy of a water resource tax,and the use of tax leverage effect to ease the contradiction between water supply and demand,and guide users to form a scientific water intake structure,and thus achieve the purpose of saving water and protecting water resources.The reform of this pilot project was very effective.Therefore,in December 2017,China expanded the water resources tax reform pilot to include nine provinces and cities including Beijing,Tianjin,Shanxi and Inner Mongolia.This paper uses comparative analysis,social surveys and other methods for the investment in water-saving equipment before and after the tax reform of water resources in Hebei province,the amount of surface water and groundwater taken,the rate of taxation of water resources throughout the country,and the average monthly income of water resources taxes.The changes in the value of the index,etc.were investigated and analyzed.The results showed that after the implementation of the implementation of the water resource tax in Hebei Province,people's awareness of water conservation was generally enhanced,the water intake structure was more reasonable,the production mode of enterprises changed from extensive tointensive,and the efficiency of tax collection and management was improved.The income from water resources tax increases,and the reform results are significant.Of course,there are also shortcomings in the reforms,such as inadequate system design,inadequate collection and management,and inadequate infrastructure construction.This article analyzes the water resource taxation system in the Netherlands,Russia,Germany and France,finds advanced experiences that can be learnt from it,provides reference opinions for improving China's water resource tax system,and proposes suggestions for the promotion of water resources tax in the country.Other provinces provide references for reform of the water resources tax.