|
CHINA> National
![]() |
|
China considers tax on polluting businesses
(Xinhua)
Updated: 2009-06-05 16:46 BEIJING - China is considering levying a tax on polluting businesses to better protect the environment, a senior official said here Friday. Zhang Lijun, vice minister of environmental protection, said collecting environmental taxes from polluting enterprises was one of the directions of the country's tax system reform.
"We are jointly studying the issue, and when conditions are ripe, we'll launch the taxation system on polluting enterprises." In one of its efforts, China has earmarked 210 billion yuan (US$30.7 billion) for environmental protection from the government's 4-trillion-yuan stimulus package to boost domestic demand amid the global financial crisis, Zhang said. The country has also enforced stricter penalties on companies that failed to reduce pollutant emissions, he said, which include heavy fines of more than 50 million yuan on a polluting power plant and administrative penalty on a delinquent county head in northern province of Hebei last year. The efforts have helped improve the nation's environment, with obvious changes in some environmental quality indicators in 2008 -- including the decline of permanganate in surface water and the sulfur dioxide in the air of cities, he said. Zhang admitted that air in a few cities remained "very polluted" and the problem of acid rain remained serious. Surface water pollution in the country was still grim, and the environmental problems in rural areas became increasingly prominent, he warned. |
|||||
巴彦淖尔市| 青岛市| 石泉县| 康保县| 临澧县| 彭山县| 会东县| 青州市| 新丰县| 剑川县| 平遥县| 开化县| 远安县| 建始县| 湘乡市| 高邮市| 莎车县| 大冶市| 五莲县| 融水| 闸北区| 抚远县| 石泉县| 汝州市| 缙云县| 西峡县| 民勤县| 通河县| 长泰县| 始兴县| 张家川| 富阳市| 将乐县| 大连市| 朝阳市| 宿松县| 临沧市| 宣城市| 淮阳县| 夏河县| 屏南县|