Environmental Tax: A Double-Edged Sword For Leather Enterprises.

In 2013, it is expected that the environmental tax will be introduced in 2014 and thereafter. This is generally in line with the national development and Reform Commission and the Ministry of finance's special report on "the timing of China's carbon tax before and after 2012". The six major tax reforms in 2010 are speeding up. The Central Committee has made a clear statement. The State Council has forwarded the proposal of the national development and Reform Commission on the key work of deepening economic reform in the national development and Reform Commission to put forward a plan to study the introduction of environmental taxes. Jiangxi, the central footwear industry, has declared the environmental tax pilot to the State Council after Hunan and Hubei. Since June 1st, Xinjiang has implemented the resource tax reform. According to the report of the Ministry of finance of China on the study of carbon tax in China, the carbon tax was selected from 1 to 3 years after the resource tax reform (2012 ~).

Environmental tax

For leather enterprises, the perception of environmental taxes is directly reflected in the "sewage charges". So what are the similarities and differences between taxes and fees?

One

Judging from the pilot scheme in Jiangxi, the scope of taxation is basically the same as that of sewage charges, which are four categories of air pollutants, water pollutants, solid pollutants and noise pollution.

At present, sewage charges collected from enterprises include not only large quantities of conventional pollutants, but also many minor and unconventional pollutants, such as heavy metal pollutants such as chromium, mercury and lead, and organic pollutants related to leather industry.

Environmental taxes will choose large pollutants as pollutants indicators, such as sulfur dioxide, nitrogen oxides and so on, but not all of them. Otherwise, the cost of implementation is too high and the technical difficulty is great.

Who will bear the brunt of the major pollutants? "Now there are a lot of sewage charges, and the most likely carbon tax is first introduced."

Jia Kang, director of the Finance Department of the Ministry of finance, said.

According to the analysis of relevant people in Changjiang Securities, China's environmental tax levy is most likely to start with sulfur tax, because the pollution sources are relatively centralized and clear, and the metering and testing methods have become a system.

2. collection method

The pilot scheme of Jiangxi intends to adopt the idea of continuing the collection of sewage charges, from the quantity, the standard and the sewage charges are roughly the same, giving the provincial governments the power to select cameras within a certain range.

The industry generally believes that the pollution tax rate should be higher than the existing level of sewage charges, because "sewage charges are only used to offset the actual cost of sewage treatment, and the external environmental costs are still not counted."

Dean of Environmental College of Renmin University of China said.

But the tax rate can not be too high, otherwise it will inhibit social production activities and lead to a decline in industrial competitiveness.

This is also consistent with the statistics of Jiangxi's environmental protection department. The amount of sewage charges in 2008 was 410 million in 2009, and 475 million in 2009. If the environmental tax was collected according to the volume assessment method, the scale of the environmental tax revenue was estimated to be about 500 million.

3. use differences

More than 20 years since the sewage charges were levied, the situation of arbitrary use and confusion in management and utilization has always been there.

4. mechanism of action

The sewage charge is a kind of excessive sewage charge. The premise is that the polluter emission exceeds the standard, and the sewage charges are not charged to the target. For the enterprises that fail to meet the standards, there are such phenomena as low collection standards, relatively difficult collection, inadequate collection and government intervention.

The tax adjustment policy focuses on encouraging enterprises to save energy, reduce emissions and reduce consumption in the production process. The environmental tax will impose a "punitive" tax on enterprises' environmental pollution and occupation of resources, which is more forcefully, and will further strengthen the government's leverage to regulate environmental pollution.

5. legal status

The legal status of the two party is not the same.

Since 2003, the sewage charges have been implemented in two lines and earmarked funds management mode.

At present, the collection standards of sewage charges in different provinces and even cities are different, basically formulated locally. On the one hand, the rate of levy is more arbitrary. The collection capacity of environmental protection departments, the support of local governments, and the awareness of environmental protection of the market entities will all affect the efficiency of charging. On the other hand, some local governments are exemption from the "sewage charges" in order to attract investment.

After the fee is changed into tax, there will be a uniform standard for the enterprise, which is of legal significance. It is different from the fairness of "fee generation tax" affecting the "sewage charges". The environmental tax is more rigid and more stable.

In response, Yang Zhaofei, director of the policy and regulation department of the Ministry of environmental protection, said: "in the coming period, the two track system will be implemented and the coexistence of taxes and fees will not change significantly in the short term.

In the long run, the bulk of conventional pollutants may be changed to environmental taxes, while minor unconventional pollutants may be fined.

The environmental tax is a double-edged sword. If we push the leather industry to upgrade the environment, will it increase the burden on the related enterprises?

The environmental tax will cause enterprises to "worry more". Pan Yue, deputy director of the State Environmental Protection Administration, said that the environmental tax is a norm for the various taxes and fees in the past, and it will relieve other environmental taxes and fees without increasing the burden on enterprises.

Jiangxi's environmental tax reform also revealed that its plan is mainly in connection with sewage charges in advance, regulating environmental charges, and will not impose additional burden on enterprises.

However, the original intention of the design of the environmental tax is to take the cost of environmental pollution control originally undertaken by the society by the enterprises themselves, and the internal digestion of the environmental cost will inevitably enhance the product cost of the enterprise.

Wen Yibo, President of the National Federation of industry and Commerce environmental services industry, believes that the Levy of environmental taxes will increase the cost of products by 2% to 5%.

Statistics from the China Leather Association show that in 2009, the average sales profit of the enterprises above the scale of leather industry was 5.4%, the average sales profit rate of footwear products was 5.1%, and the average sales profit rate of luggage products was only 3.2%.

Under the impact of the economic crisis, the leather industry is faced with multiple pressures such as rising raw material prices and passive appreciation of the renminbi. The profits of leather enterprises are very few. If we add the cost pressure brought by the environmental tax, the international competitiveness of leather enterprises will be weakened.

Therefore, how to levy taxes on the environment and when to levy taxes and how to help enterprises digest the cost pressure brought by the environmental tax is the key for the relevant government departments to explore.

Leather enterprises: to deal with worries and foresight

From the current situation analysis, the introduction of environmental taxes has become the general trend, and the policy issue is only a matter of time.

Now that irreversible, the leather industry should have an early response and take precautions.

1., take effective measures.

The leather industry's measures to deal with environmental taxes can be divided into two types: short term and long term: short term is to reduce the supply or change the structure of raw material input, and in the long run is technological innovation and capital export. Taking into account the sustainable development of enterprises, enterprises must not be short-sighted and have long-term plans.

First of all, we must strengthen technological research and development.

The impact of environmental tax on the leather industry will ultimately make the production factor go from the tax department to the non tax department.

In this process, by adopting advanced management technology or reducing pollution production process, enterprises will reduce production costs and tax payments, and thus win in competition.

At the same time, we should also see that footwear companies and leather goods companies have some say in bargaining, and the ability to pfer costs is strong.

When the original product is not easy to raise the price, enterprises should speed up the research and development of new products and enhance the bargaining space of products.

The research published by the Hongkong Trade Development Council shows that the rising cost of production in mainland China is not damaging its competitiveness. The proportion of mainland products in Global trade continues to rise, from 47% in 2000 to 12.7% in 2008, indicating that the competitiveness of the mainland as a production base is not limited to the price side.

The quality and delivery time of mainland products, as well as the flexibility to cater for the needs of different orders, are more than those in other Asian regions.

The leather industry is currently in a boom and up channel, which will help leather enterprises to offset the burden of environmental tax reform in the future.

2. avoid entering the cognitive misunderstanding.

To put it another way, leather enterprises do not have to worry about paying the environmental tax, but also avoid entering the three major erroneous zones.

First, paying the environmental tax is equivalent to buying the right to discharge pollutants.

The amount of pollutant discharge is reflected in the specific standard of environmental tax, so as to prevent enterprises from paying more taxes instead of paying taxes.

Second, paying taxes on the environment is a matter of government.

Even if the company fulfil its obligation to pay the environmental tax, it can not be exempted from the responsibility of pollution control.

Third, the environmental tax will be paid and the regulation will be relaxed.

After the Levy of environmental taxes, the environmental protection department strengthens supervision and enforcement, and provides technical data to achieve fair taxation with the tax authorities.

It can be said that the environmental tax is the economic power for leather enterprises to upgrade.

As Jia Kang, director of the Fiscal Science Research Institute of the Ministry of finance, said, "if the environmental tax is well designed, it will effectively restrict the consumption of fossil energy by enterprises.

Under the pressure of economy, we will do everything possible to save energy and reduce emissions and develop technologies and technologies conducive to circular economy. In this process, we will have a competitive mechanism for survival of the fittest. "

Wen Yibo also mentioned the increase in the cost of environmental taxes, but also said: "if the environmental tax is formally implemented, it will guide enterprises to control pollution, improve technology and improve management from the source."

The environmental tax will not be a charitable tax, and the impact on the leather industry can not be underestimated.

Environmental taxes will have a negative impact on the industry in the short term. But in the long run, environmental taxes can promote leather enterprises to improve their economic structure, optimize their allocation of resources, enhance their environmental competitiveness through corresponding environmental standards and environmental management, and ultimately enhance their competitiveness.