Reserch On The Pilot Effect Of Water Tax Reform The Perspective Of Sustainable Development

Water resources are vital to human survival.Only by making scientific and rational use of water resources and establishing a water-saving society can we ensure the sustainable development of national economy and society.Although the total amount of water resources in China is large,the per capita is low and the temporal and spatial distribution is uneven.For a long time,due to the lack of effective regulation and control of water resources,the problems such as serious waste of water resources,low utilization efficiency of water resources and imbalance of water resources structure are extremely prominent.The sustainable development of water resources has gradually attracted people’s attention.To this end,the Ministry of Finance and the State Administration of Taxation conducted a pilot reform of water resources tax in Hebei Province on May 9,2016,summed up experience and gradually expanded the scope of the pilot.Then,in December 2017,nine provinces,autonomous regions and municipalities directly under the central government,including Beijing,were included in the pilot area of water resources tax reform.So far,a "1 + 9" pilot model of water resources tax reform has been formed.This means that the water resources tax will gradually replace the existing water resources fee and continuously strengthen the regulation of water resources by tax means.The 14 th five year plan once again mentioned "carry out national water-saving actions,build a rigid restraint system for water resources,strengthen agricultural water conservation and efficiency,industrial water conservation and emission reduction,urban water conservation and loss reduction,and encourage the use of renewable water resources." It not only makes clear that the rigid constraint system of water resources tax on water resources has become an inevitable choice in the future,but also makes clear the direction of the system design of water resources tax in the future.It can be seen that the timely expansion of water resources tax is imminent.From the perspective of sustainable development,this paper explores the pilot effect of water resources tax reform.From the theoretical level,combined with public goods theory,externality theory,land rent theory and sustainable development theory,this paper explains the rationality and necessity of water resources tax.At the same time,as quasi public goods,water resources hinder social and economic development and produce negative external effects due to the excessive development and utilization of water resources,which needs to be regulated by the government through tax means.The existence of differential land rent also makes the setting of water resources tax need to formulate a differentiated tax system in combination with the distribution of water resources,so as to promote the sustainable exploitation and utilization of water resources.In practice,by combing the development process of water resources tax reform,analyzing the pilot effect of water resources tax reform,we find the problems existing in water resources tax system and collection and management.On this basis,the comparative analysis method is used to compare the change trend of water consumption,water intensity,water structure and water resource pressure index in 10 pilot provinces.It is found that the overall industrial water consumption shows a downward trend,agricultural water accounts for a large proportion in most pilot provinces,and the trend of water resource pressure index is different in different regions.By constructing a two-way fixed effect model to analyze the impact of the pilot of water resources tax on the total amount and intensity of water use,as well as industries,it is found that the water efficiency is further improved after the pilot of water resources tax reform,and the industrial water efficiency is the most significant.Then from the perspective of sustainable development,this paper puts forward some policy suggestions,such as steadily promoting the expansion of water resources tax,scientifically designing water resources tax system,and constantly strengthening the collection and management of water resources tax.