BEIJING - Taxation will play a larger role in China's drive to conserve more water as a water resource tax program is expanded. Starting Friday, nine provincial regions, including Beijing, Inner Mongolia and Ningxia will begin using a new water resource tax, following trials in north China's Hebei Province. Water conservation is important in a nation where per capita water resources are only 28 percent of the global average. The tax is levied on the use of surface and ground water, with higher rates on enterprises that consume a lot of water. Water use exceeding quotas or in overexploited areas will be met with tax rates up to four times more, while use for agricultural purposes will see a reduction or exemption. The use of water that has come from sewage treatment facilities will also have favorable rates. The taxation will prevent unreasonable use by consumers like ski resorts and car washes, said Wang Jianfan, an official with the Ministry of Finance (MOF). In Hebei, where water shortages are a perennial issue, total water consumption dropped by 460 million tonnes in 2016, after the first tax trial was launched 18 months ago. To cut production costs and save water, high water-consuming enterprises like steel, cement and chemical companies have installed water-saving devices and replaced groundwater with desalinated sea water and recycled wastewater. "The main purpose of the tax is not to increase fiscal revenue," said Cai Zili of the State Administration of Taxation. In the nine regions, a total of 13.3 billion yuan (about 2 billion U.S. dollars) of water resource fees were collected last year, only a small fraction of a local fiscal revenue that was calculated in trillions. The tax has a great ecological significance and will help water management, said Cai. Improvements have been made under new water management measures introduced in 2012 to address water shortages and pollution. In 2016, China's water consumption dropped from 610 billion cubic meters to 604 billion cubic meters, and consumption per 10,000 yuan of GDP was down by 7.2 percent. The expansion of the tax trials is a step forward in overall reform of the resource tax system, which is more the 30 years old. Nearly 800 billion yuan of resource taxes were collected from 1994 to 2016, an annual average growth of 14.8 percent, with 95 billion yuan collected last year, according to MOF data. A draft law on resource tax was released earlier this month for public comment and covers resources like crude oil, natural gas and coal. The reform has brought huge tax reductions to resource-saving and environment-friendly businesses, with taxes reduced by 4.2 billion yuan in the year ending June 2017. wristband designcheap rubber wristbandsbat fidget spinneradjustable wristbands
A rising number of migratory birds have been seen arriving for winter at East Dongting Lake in Yueyang, Hunan province, and environmental improvements at the lake are being credited for the increase, officials said.This winter, about 170,000 migratory birds are expected to arrive at East Dongting Lake, a major part of Dongting Lake, compared with 100,000 to 120,000 seen during winters in the years leading up to 2014, said Zhang Hong, deputy head of administration for East Dongting Lake National Nature Reserve.There also has been an increase in the types of birds arriving at the 190,000 hectare reserve. Around 2002, some 200 varieties of birds wintered at the lake. The number increased to 345 last winter and had reached 348 as of Dec 10, he said.Birds choose places with a pleasant environment for winter. The continued increases suggest improvement of the local environment, said Zhang.Dongting Lake is the second-largest freshwater lake in China and one of the major water bodies along the Yangtze River, China's longest.The central government published a national plan for development of the Yangtze River Economic Belt in September 2016 to boost concerted development in riverside regions and provide new growth drivers for the country's economy. Environmental protection and restoration were listed as paramount tasks in the plan.According to Zhang's administration, local police in Hunan have uncovered 31 cases related to illegal bird hunting and 16 people have received criminal punishment in the past five years. While 28 guns for hunting have been confiscated, more than 1,000 pieces of netting used in bird hunting have been found and removed in the Dongting Lake area.With financial support of about 100 million yuan ($15.4 million) in recent years from the central government, the reserve has built five protection stations, one publicity and education center and one breeding and veterinary treatment center.While sand excavation has been banned in the reserve, almost 8 kilometers of shoreline and 69 hectares of bottomland have been restored after local authorities removed 44 sand storage yards, according to the administration.In addition to government efforts, more residents have also participated in wetland protection. Last year, residents sent more than 200 injured birds to our reserve, Zhang said.Zhang Pingyang, a doctoral candidate at the Chinese Academy of Sciences, is in East Dongting for the third year doing research on protection of wetlands and birds.Three years is a short period of time when talking about ecological improvement. But I have seen continually enhanced protection efforts and officers have been monitoring the wetland around the clock, she said.
