Look quickly, the day after tomorrow, these nine provinces and cities will levy water resources tax. Will your water fee go up？

　　CCTV News:One and a half years after the pilot water resource tax reform in Hebei Province, from December 1, nine provinces (autonomous regions and municipalities) including Beijing, Tianjin, Shanxi, Inner Mongolia, Henan, Shandong, Sichuan, Ningxia and Shaanxi will also be included in the pilot water resource tax reform, and tax levers will be used to curb unreasonable water use behavior. After the reform, what will happen to the water charges in these places?

　　Nine provinces and cities, including Beijing, were included in the pilot project.

　　On November 28th, the Ministry of Finance, the State Administration of Taxation and the Ministry of Water Resources jointly issued a notice on the implementation measures for expanding the pilot reform of water resources tax. According to the deployment, on the basis of the pilot water resource tax reform in Hebei last year, starting from December 1, 2017, the pilot water resource tax collection and management will be carried out in 9 provinces including Beijing, Tianjin, Shanxi, Inner Mongolia, Shandong, Henan, Sichuan, Shaanxi and Ningxia; At the same time, the fee for raw water resources was stopped.

　　Water resource tax is not a new tax in China, but a tax item under the resource tax with a history of more than 30 years. The plan makes it clear that all units and individuals who directly use surface water and groundwater should pay water resource tax, except for emergency water intake such as agricultural drought relief and small amount of water intake for family life.

　　Overall principle: tax and fee translation

　　Do not increase the burden on residents and general industrial and commercial enterprises.

　　The change from "water resource fee" to "water resource tax", although it is a word difference, can contain many changes. The collection department has changed from the water conservancy department to the tax department, and it has become more mandatory after becoming a "tax". Will the water fee change?

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

　　At present, the water fee paid by ordinary people is "comprehensive water price", which consists of three parts: basic water price, water resource fee and sewage treatment fee. Some of the water resources fees in the nine areas expanded by this tax reform are collected outside the basic water price (such as Beijing) and some are included in the basic water price. After the fee is changed to tax, the water company pays the tax, and residents do not have to declare and pay the tax. Compared with the collection standard of raw water resource fee, the tax standard of residents and general industrial and commercial enterprises has not changed, that is to say, no matter what form is reflected in the water bill, it will not affect the comprehensive water price.

　　Optimize water use structure

　　Three improvements and six reductions and exemptions

　　This water resource tax reform is to play the role of tax adjustment, by setting differential tax, strengthening collection and management according to law, restraining groundwater overexploitation and unreasonable water demand, and adjusting and optimizing water use structure.

　　Among them, there are three improvements:

　　Determine the tax from a high level for the use of groundwater and strictly control the over-exploitation of groundwater.

　　For special industries to take water, the tax amount shall be determined from a high level.

　　For over-planned (quota) water intake, the tax amount shall be determined from the high level.

　　Judging from the pilot situation, Li Jiegang, deputy director of the Finance Department of Hebei Province, 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 groundwater intake 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-exploited areas and use more groundwater, has indeed increased, but through this forced way, enterprises have adopted water-saving measures one after another, and the water-saving effect is remarkable. Some enterprises in Hebei said that although the unit water price has increased, the water consumption has been reduced by saving water, and the overall burden has decreased instead of increasing.

　　In order to support agricultural production, the water used for agricultural production within the prescribed limits is exempt from tax;

　　In order to encourage the recycling of water resources, it is tax-free to take reclaimed water from sewage treatment;

　　In order to support national defense construction, the military and armed police forces are exempted from taking water by means other than accessing the urban public water supply network;

　　Considering that pumped storage power generation does not consume and pollute water resources, it is tax-free to take water for pumped storage power generation;

　　Considering that the special production process does not consume water resources, it is tax-free to re-inject the oil production drainage after separation and purification in the closed pipeline;

　　Other circumstances under which the Ministry of Finance and the State Administration of Taxation stipulate tax exemption or reduction.

　　Reform will be pushed to the whole country.

　　There is a big gap in tax standards in different places.

　　Specifically, the nine pilot areas will formulate detailed rules according to the general implementation measures and local conditions. Due to the diversity of water resources endowments in different places, the difference between the tax standards of water resources tax in different places in the same industry is as high as 20 times. For example, Beijing and Tianjin are economically developed and seriously short of water, and the current water resources fee collection standard is relatively high. After the taxes and fees are translated, the minimum average tax payment is also relatively high.

　　According to different places and different industries, different tax rates are adopted, so as to achieve the purpose of resource conservation and promote the full and effective utilization of water resources through the leverage of resource tax.

　　According to the Ministry of Finance, the next step will be to summarize and evaluate the implementation of the pilot project in a timely manner, fully consider the differences between regions, further improve the water resource tax system, and take the opportunity to comprehensively push forward the water resource tax reform across the country when conditions are ripe. (This article comes from: CCTV news client)