Analysis On The Effect Of Environmental Protection Tax On The Emission Reduction Of Air Pollutants In China

Since the reform and opening up,China’s economy has developed rapidly,but economic development is accompanied by environmental pollution and ecological destruction.China began collecting environmental protection tax on Jan 1,2018,the country’s first tax specifically for environmental protection.Although China has taken a series of measures,the air pollution problem in China is still very serious.It has been four years since the Levy of environmental protection tax.How much effect it has on the emission reduction of air pollutants in China needs to be further explored.Under this background,this thesis analyzes the emission reduction effect of environmental protection tax on air pollutants.This thesis first introduces the concept of environmental protection tax in China,and briefly introduces the evolution and development of environmental protection tax in China,and then expounds the theoretical basis of environmental protection tax.Then,the current situation of air pollution in China is presented in terms of data from China’s air quality and the emission changes of sulfur dioxide,nitrogen oxide and smoke(powder)dust during2011-2019.In addition,it also compares the pollutant discharge fee of all provinces with the tax standard of air pollutant tax of environmental protection tax,introduces the income of environmental protection tax(pollutant discharge fee)in China from 2011 to 2020,and introduces the implementation of environmental protection tax(pollutant discharge fee)in China from both policy and reality.In the empirical part,this thesis selected the relevant data of 30 provinces(autonomous regions and municipalities directly under the central government)in China from 2011 to 2019.After a series of tests,the two-way fixed effect model was finally established,with sulfur dioxide emissions,nitrogen oxide emissions and smoke(powder)dust emissions as explained variables.Taking the income of environmental protection tax(pollutant discharge fee)from 2011 to 2019 as the explanatory variable,the per capita GDP,the proportion of the secondary industry in GDP and the investment amount of industrial pollution treatment waste gas as the control variables,the emission reduction effect of environmental protection tax(pollutant discharge fee)on air pollutants in China was tested.The results show that the environmental protection tax has a significant reduction effect on the emission of sulfur dioxide and smoke(powder)dust,but not on nitrogen oxides.Then,according to the empirical results,this thesis analyzes the reasons that restrict the emission reduction effect of air pollutants in China’s environmental protection tax,including the narrow collection range of taxable air pollutants,the unreasonable tax standard for taxable air pollutants,some unreasonable preferential tax policies for air pollutants,the imperfect methods for determining the emission of air pollutants,and the imperfect inter departmental tax related information sharing and work cooperation mechanism.Finally,some suggestions are put forward to improve the emission reduction effect of air pollutants in China’s environmental protection tax,including gradually expanding the collection scope of taxable air pollutants,appropriately adjusting the tax standard of taxable air pollutants,further improving the preferential tax policies for air pollutants,improving the determination method of air pollution emissions,and improving the tax related information sharing and work cooperation mechanism of departments.