Water resource tax is not a new tax in China, but a tax item under the resource tax which has a history of more than 30 years. The plan is clear, in addition to emergency water withdrawals such as agricultural drought resistance and small amounts of water withdrawals for household life, all units and individuals that directly use surface water and groundwater should pay water resources tax.

The change from "water resources fee" to "water resources tax", although it is a word difference, can contain a lot of changes. The collection department was changed from the water conservancy department to the tax department, and after it became "tax", it became more mandatory. Will there be any change in the water bill?

During the pilot period, the specific applicable tax shall be levied according to the standard of raw water resource fees, in accordance with the principle of shifting taxes and fees, and shall not increase the burden of water used by general industrial and commercial enterprises and urban and rural residents for normal production and living.

The water fee paid by the common people is the "comprehensive water price", which consists of three parts: basic water price, water resources fee, and sewage treatment fee.

Water fees in the nine regions covered by the tax will be levied either in addition to the basic water price (as in Beijing) or included in the basic water price. After the fee is changed to tax, it is paid by the water company,

and residents do not have to declare tax. Compared with the standard for the collection of raw water resource fees, the tax standards for residents and general industrial and commercial enterprises have not changed, that is to say, regardless of the form reflected in the water bill, it will not affect the comprehensive water price.

This water resources tax reform is to give play to the regulatory role of taxation, by setting a differential tax, strengthening collection and management in accordance with the law, curb groundwater overexploitation and unreasonable water demand, and adjust and optimize the structure of water use.

From the pilot situation, Li Jiegang, deputy director of the Hebei Provincial Department of Finance, introduced that in 2016, more than 100 urban public water supply enterprises in Hebei Province changed from pumping groundwater to using surface water, and the amount of groundwater withdrawals in the province decreased by 6.6% compared with the previous year.

In addition, the water burden of enterprises in special industries such as golf, bathing, and car washing, which are located in over-mining areas and use groundwater, has indeed increased, but through this forced way,

enterprises have adopted water-saving measures, and the water-saving effect is remarkable. Some enterprises in Hebei said that although the unit price of water has risen, water consumption has been reduced by saving water, and the overall burden has fallen instead of increasing.

The pilot also clarified six tax reduction and exemption situations:

In order to support agricultural production, the use of water for agricultural production within the prescribed limit shall be exempted from tax;

In order to encourage the recycling of water resources, the use of sewage treatment of recycled water tax exemption;

In order to support national defense construction, the military and armed police forces are exempt from water use by means other than connecting to urban public water supply networks.

Considering that pumped storage power generation does not consume or pollute water resources, water withdrawal from pumped storage power generation is exempt from tax.

Considering that the special production process does not consume water resources, the tax exemption for the oil production drainage after separation and purification in the closed pipeline reinjection;

Reforms will be rolled out across the country

Tax rates vary widely from place to place

Specifically, the nine pilot areas will formulate detailed rules based on the general implementation methods and local conditions. Due to the diverse status of water resources endowments in various places,

the current water resources tax standard table issued by various pilot places has a gap of more than 20 times in the same industry. For example, Beijing and Tianjin are economically developed and suffer from severe water shortage. The current water resource fee collection standard is relatively high, and the minimum average tax amount is also relatively high after the tax transfer.

For different places, different industries are to adopt different such taxes, so through the leverage of resource tax, to achieve the purpose of resource conservation, to promote the full and effective use of water resources.