Chohnny's Public Finance and Fiscal Management Blog 2016 - Article #2

China's parliament proposes new environmental tax benefits: State Media

http://www.reuters.com/article/us-china-tax-environment-idUSKCN11413L

For years China has been discussing new tax laws to reduce emissions from heavy industry. Now their parliament has proposed increasing tax benefits for companies that cut pollution by more than the national standard. I think this is a great way to encourage companies to reduce emissions and that it could be very effective. Rather than punishing companies and getting a lot of negative attention and feedback, this is an incentive that they can get behind. If it is passed, the companies would have to reduce emissions to at least half of the national requirement, and would then only pay half the taxes levied for air, water and soil pollution. However companies in the agriculture and transport sectors are excluded from the tax law because they are much smaller polluters than industrial companies such as steel, oil and coal. But I think they should be included in some way, to help encourage more environmentally conscious behaviors on their part as well. But this is a step in the right direction overall and I think people will react more positively to it.