China Replaces Anti-Pollution Charges with Beefed Up ‘Green’ Tax

A villager works on his vegetable field on a late autumn day in 2014 in Handan, Hebei province. The steel plant nearly 100 meters behind him spews out brownish smoke when iron minerals are poured in a furnace. Photo: CFP

(Beijing) — China will start collecting environment protection or “green” taxes in 2018, replacing nearly four decades of “pollution discharge fees” in a bid to strengthen enforcement that authorities said local governments had often interfered with.

Lawmakers are also adding incentives, such as more specific tax breaks, to encourage polluters to reduce their emissions of toxic substances.

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