Chen Jining, China's minister of environmental protection, addresses reporters on Friday at a press conference in Beijing on the sidelines of the annual sessions of the country's top legislative and advisory bodies. Photo: CFP

China will work on laws on environmental protection taxation and soil pollution prevention as the nation struggles to further cut its emissions, its environment minister said on Friday.

"The National People's Congress (NPC) is working on a law on environmental protection taxation. The core goal is not to increase taxation, but to better establish a mechanism to encourage enterprises to cut emissions," Minister Chen Jining told a press conference on the sidelines of the annual two sessions of the country's top legislative and advisory bodies.

A draft law on environment tax proposes levying tax on air- and water-borne pollutants, solid waste and noise.

In as early as 2014, the finance ministry said that the new tax would replace the current emission fee and that tax would be particularly levied on carbon emissions. The same year, the emission fees turned over to the national treasury totaled 18.68 billion yuan ($2.87 billion), Beijing-based China Economic Times newspaper reported.

According to estimates by Ge Chazhong, an official at the Ministry of Environmental Protection, the amount may be up to 50 billion yuan after the taxation policy, as the emission fee used to be collected by environmental protection authorities, but will be collected by the taxation administrations in the future that have a stronger ability to enforce the law, the Beijing-based China Times newspaper reported.

"The taxation will pressure companies to shoulder their responsibilities in environmental protection, but it requires a delicate balance between promoting emission cuts and pushing companies too hard with heavy taxes given the already dour economic situation," Zhang Xiaobo, a Beijing-based expert on carbon trade, told the Global Times.

Huge efforts

China had made huge efforts to tackle pollution and acid rain, which were dealt with "earlier and better" than by developed countries at similar development stages, Chen said, adding that China will do as well in tackling smog.

Environmental authorities have fined polluters 4.25 billion yuan in 2015, an increase of 34 percent over 2014, while 191,000 of about 1.77 million inspected enterprises have been punished, according to Chen.

"I would like to stress that severe punishment is not an end but a means to have enterprises understand the importance of abiding by the law," Chen said.

Instead of administrative orders, authorities should also further open the carbon trade market to make enterprises voluntarily save energy and cut emissions, as pure punishments on polluters may receive obstacles from authorities, according to Zhang.

Local protectionism

The nation will introduce a pilot program at 17 provincial regions in 2016 to tackle local protectionism in environmental supervision and push the local governments to assume their responsibilities in environmental protection, as local authorities sometimes interfere in monitoring and law enforcement, said Chen.

Meanwhile, a draft law on soil pollution prevention will be presented to the Standing Committee of the NPC for deliberation in 2017, Yuan Si, vice chairman of the Environment Protection and Resources Conservation Committee of the NPC Standing Committee, said at a Thursday conference.

Yuan said the country urgently needs the law, as soil pollution is grave in parts of the country and threatens food and water safety.

Agencies contributed to this story