Study On The Effect Of Water Resources Tax Reform And Water Saving And Emission Reduction In China

Water resources are widely used in human production and life activities.Water resources with excellent water quality,abundant water resources and uniform distribution in time and space will greatly promote the development of national economy,the protection of ecological environment and the progress of human civilization.On the contrary,the random waste and pollution of water resources not only affect the basic economic development,but also bring great harm to the basic living environment of human beings.In the future,China should continue to respect,adapt to and protect nature,and carry out in-depth protection of water resources by coordinating water resources management,water environment and water ecology.However,there are many problems in China ’s water resources,such as insufficient per capita water resources and uneven spatial and temporal distribution of water resources.In addition,with the increasing population of our country,the waste and pollution of water resources is becoming more and more serious,followed by a series of ecological and environmental problems.At present,China ’s industrial agriculture is still in a backward state,and waste and pollution are common,which makes the contradiction between supply and demand of water resources more prominent.In 2016,Hebei Province,as the first pilot province of water resources tax in China,took the lead in carrying out the reform of water resources fee to tax.With the development of the pilot work of water resources tax,there are some problems in promoting water saving and emission reduction.On the one hand,the water resource tax promotes the water users to reduce their water consumption by increasing their water cost;in addition,due to the differential tax rate setting of water resources tax,the water users actively reduce groundwater exploitation and use surface water instead,which promotes the optimization of water use structure.The implementation of water resources tax also promotes water users to actively invest in water-saving and emission reduction equipment,improve production technology,and promote the recycling of water resources.On the other hand,China’s water resources tax began to be piloted in 2016.Up to now,the pilot time is relatively short,and the tax standard has not increased significantly compared with water resources fees.Especially in terms of agricultural water use and residential water use in China,more preferential tax policies are still set up,so that the water resources tax has no significant regulatory effect on agricultural water use and residential water use.Therefore,by further exploring the water saving and emission reduction effect of the water resources tax pilot and then finding out the problems,it is conducive to the further promotion of the water resources tax to the whole country and the establishment of a sound water resources tax system.This paper uses both normative analysis and empirical analysis.Firstly,it summarizes and analyzes the existing research results by consulting domestic and foreign literature related to water resources tax,relevant policy documents issued by government departments and research reports issued by the society.Secondly,the concept connotation,theoretical basis and mechanism of water resources tax are analyzed to fully understand the water resources tax.Thirdly,this paper combs the development of water resources tax,the existing characteristics of water resources tax and the practical experience of foreign water resources tax,and provides a practical basis for the final policy recommendations.Thirdly,this paper uses the difference-in-differences(DID)method to evaluate the effect of water saving and emission reduction policy brought by the pilot reform of water resources tax.The water saving effect and emission reduction effect of the pilot area are considered by water use intensity,chemical oxygen demand and ammonia nitrogen emission index.At the same time,in order to make the empirical results more convincing,this paper conducts robustness test and heterogeneity analysis on the basis of the above empirical results.Finally,combined with the previous combing of the status quo,empirical results and existing literature research,this paper summarizes some problems existing in the implementation of water resources tax,and puts forward corresponding policy recommendations.The final conclusions of this paper are as follows : First,the reduction effect of water resources tax on water use intensity needs to be improved.The effect of water resources tax on the overall water use intensity is not obvious,and the effect on the water use intensity of production and living water types is not obvious.Second,the sewage emission reduction is stable.With the implementation of water resources tax,the chemical oxygen demand and ammonia nitrogen emissions of pilot provinces and cities have decreased to varying degrees,and the emission reduction effect in production is particularly obvious.Third,control variables such as industrial added value,added value of agriculture,forestry,animal husbandry and fishery,population and precipitation will also have a certain impact on water conservation and emission reduction.Fourthly,based on the combing of the theoretical basis and effects of water resources tax,and the empirical test of the data in the past ten years,the results show that the promotion of water resources tax to the whole country is the general trend in the future.The characteristics of this paper are as follows : First,based on the pilot expansion of the nine provinces and cities,this paper studies the practical effect of water resources tax on the basis of normative analysis,combining theory with practice.Second,China ’s current research on the pilot effect of water resources tax mostly stays in its water-saving effect research,mainly including two aspects of total water use and water use efficiency,and there is still a certain lack of research on the emission reduction of water resources tax.In this paper,chemical oxygen demand and ammonia nitrogen emissions are used as measurement indicators to empirically analyze the emission reduction effect of water resources tax.Thirdly,this paper systematically discusses and analyzes the problems existing in the water resources tax since the pilot,and puts forward corresponding suggestions based on theory and practice.