Three departments including the Ministry of Finance: Water resources tax is levied quantitatively to determine the tax amount on groundwater from a higher level

The Zhitong Finance App learned that recently, the Ministry of Finance, the State Administration of Taxation, and the Ministry of Water Resources jointly issued the “Water Tax Reform Pilot Implementation Measures”. Among them, it was mentioned that the water tax is levied on an ad valorem basis. The amount of tax on groundwater intake is determined from a higher level. For the same type of water used, the groundwater tax amount should be higher than surface water. Higher taxes are determined for water intake in areas where water resources are severely scarce and overloaded. Tax amounts are raised appropriately in line with actual use of water without approval, where the amount of water intake exceeds the permitted amount of water or the water intake plan.

The original text is as follows:

Notice on Issuing the “Water Tax Reform Pilot Implementation Measures”

Finance and Taxation [2024] No. 28

The people's governments of the provinces, autonomous regions and municipalities directly under the Central Government:

In order to fully implement the spirit of the 20th National Congress and the Second and Third Plenums of the 20th CPC Central Committee, as well as the relevant provisions of the “Resource Tax Law of the People's Republic of China” and the “Water Law of the People's Republic of China”, strengthen the management and protection of water resources, and promote the conservation, intensive and safe use of water resources, we have formulated the “Water Tax Reform Pilot Implementation Measures”, which are now being issued with the approval of the State Council. Please implement them carefully.

This article was selected from the “Ministry of Finance” official website, Zhitong Finance Editor: Jiang Yuanhua.