Study On The Effect Of Environmental Protection Tax On Pollution Reduction In The Yangtze River Economic Belt

Yangtze River Economic Belt is China’s agriculture,industry,commerce,high-tech industry is the most developed and one of the most potential areas,in recent years,the Yangtze River Basin with the rapid development of the economy environmental problems have become increasingly prominent,river cut-off,water quality eutrophication and other ecological and environmental problems seriously hinder the sustainable development of the Yangtze River Economic Belt.In order to practice the development concept of "green water and green mountains are golden mountains and silver mountains" put forward by General Secretary Xi Jinping,the government has issued a number of tax policies to promote environmental improvement through measures that encourage and restrict,and achieved positive results.The scope of environmental tax can be divided into general environmental tax and narrow environmental tax.At present,most scholars at home and abroad study the effects of generalized environmental taxes,but there are relatively few studies on the effects of narrow environmental taxes.In China’s green tax system,the narrow environmental tax,that is,the environmental protection tax,as an ex post facto adjustment tax on pollutant emissions,is of great significance to the emission reduction and green innovation of the Yangtze River Economic Belt.Therefore,this article is based on the analysis of environmental taxes in the narrow sense.In terms of theoretical analysis,the theoretical basis and mechanism of narrow environmental tax emission reduction are studied: the theoretical basis of environmental tax is expounded by using the theory of public goods,the theory of externality,and the theory of Pigou tax;the above related theories are used to analyze the emission reduction effect of environmental tax and the mechanism of transformation and upgrading.In terms of status analysis,this paper systematically analyzes the collection of environmental protection taxes and fees and the status quo of pollutant emissions in the Yangtze River Economic Belt through the relevant data of environmental protection tax revenue and major pollutant emissions in the past 15 years.In terms of empirical analysis,this paper uses the provincial panel data of 11 provinces and cities in the Yangtze River Economic Belt from 2005 to 2020 to establish a dynamic panel model,add the lag period of pollutant emissions and the lag period of environmental protection taxes and fees,and return the data through the systematic GMM estimation method to test the emission reduction effect of environmental protection tax in the Yangtze River Economic Belt.（1）Environmental protection taxes and fees do have an emission reduction effect on the Yangtze River Economic Belt,and the emission reduction effect on industrial sulfur dioxide is greater than the emission reduction effect of industrial chemical oxygen demand;（2）the environmental Kuznets curve does exist in the yangtze River Economic Belt,and the Yangtze River Economic Belt is still on the left side of the "inverted U" curve;（3）The emission reduction effect of environmental protection tax on the Yangtze River Economic Belt has heterogeneity in the upper,middle and lower basins.According to the analysis of the emission reduction effect of environmental protection tax in the Yangtze River Economic Belt,this paper mainly puts forward the following suggestions: in the design of the tax system,further expand and refine the scope of taxation,implement differential tax rates,design multi-level tax incentives,etc.;in terms of tax collection and management,it is necessary to strengthen the detection mechanism of tax sources,strengthen information sharing between departments,and ensure the special use of special funds for taxes;in the coordinated governance of the environment in the Yangtze River Economic Belt,it is necessary to further optimize the industrial structure and increase the intensity of environmental governance.