Tax On Coal Resources

The near future

After a series of policy signals of resource tax reform are released frequently, will the next step be made?

In fact, the resource tax reform has taken a step forward. In June 1, 2010, the Ministry of Finance and the State Administration of Taxation issued the "Regulations on the reform of the natural gas resources tax in Xinjiang". The crude oil and natural gas resources tax was assessed at ad valorem and the tax rate was 5%. The formula for calculating the tax payable was: tax payable = sales volume tax rate, and this reform plan did not include coal in it.

The market is expected to stem from many reasons such as avoiding inflationary pressures. Even if the national resource tax reform is launched, it is unlikely that the price of coal will be assessed at any time.

However, the western development conference held in Beijing in early July pointed out that in order to further promote the development of the western region, we must conscientiously implement various policies and measures formulated by the Central Committee, and levy a tax on coal, crude oil and natural gas from the quantity collection to the ad valorem.

The current levying method of China's coal resources tax is still calculated from the quantity. In terms of tax rate, besides the coking coal resource tax amount is unified to 8 yuan / ton, the tax rates of other coal types in other regions are mostly 3 yuan / ton.

At present, the tax collection quota of Coal Enterprises above Designated Size actually accounts for 1% of the sales revenue. The resource tax reform plan has initially determined that the tax rate on resource tax will be increased from 3%-5% to 1% in real terms, with coking coal as an example. According to the 5% tax rate, the tax burden after ad valorem may be 5-7 times the original tax from the quantity.

At present, the main use of domestic coal is power generation, and the increase of resource tax means that the cost of power plants is further improved. In the first three quarters of 2010, the power supply and demand situation and economic operation situation analysis report of the first quarter of 2010 released by the China Electric Power Enterprise Federation showed that the thermal power enterprises in 10 provinces were all losing money, and the power generation enterprises were faced with the risk of gold chain breakage due to losses.

At present, when the heating period in the north is approaching the power plant to store coal in winter, some power plants have no money to buy coal, which may not guarantee the risk of power and heat supply.

The price mechanism of "market coal and planned electricity" and the management system of "electricity for central enterprises and coal to local" is the fundamental reason for the aggravation of the contradiction between coal and electricity and the loss of thermal power enterprises.

Therefore, we should increase the reform of the price mechanism and management system.

The main reason for the serious loss of thermal power enterprises is that the price of electricity coal is rising too fast.

This year, the market price of coal rose by more than 100 yuan / ton over the same period last year. The average price of the five major power groups to the standard coal price rose by more than 15%, and the pressure of operation was enormous.

In the current context, if the coal resources tax is raised, the losses of thermal power enterprises will be further increased, and the current electricity price formation mechanism is an important reason for the loss of thermal power enterprises.

In order to resolve the contradiction between coal and electricity, the national development and Reform Commission promulgated the coal electricity price linkage mechanism in 2004. In May 2005 and June 2006, the national development and Reform Commission implemented coal electricity linkage for the two time, the total sales price increased by an average of 5.02 cents per kilowatt hour. In 2008, when the price of electricity coal increased again, the NDRC adjusted the electricity price of power generation enterprises two times in July 1st and August 21st in 2008.

The linkage mechanism of coal and electricity prices has also played an important role in maintaining the normal production and operation of power generating enterprises.

However, due to the fact that coal electricity price linkage is not in place, the rise in coal prices has always been higher than the increase in grid price, which makes the loss of power generation enterprises increasing. Fuel costs now occupy 70% of the total cost of China's power generation enterprises.

To sum up, the increase of resource tax means that the cost of power plant is further improved. At present, the thermal power enterprises have already lost money. The coal electricity linkage policy should be implemented as soon as possible and the electricity price mechanism reform should be accelerated.

At the same time, we should speed up the reform of the pricing mechanism of resource products in order to form a reasonable pricing mechanism.