Study On The Environmental And Economic Effects Of The Policy Of Changing Pollutant Discharge Fee Into Tax

The report of the 20 th National Congress of the Communist Party of China pointed out that we should adhere to the theme of promoting high-quality development and strive to improve total factor productivity.In recent years,the environmental problems caused by extensive development have become increasingly prominent,and behind the ecological problems,there are also problems of low quality of economic development.Pollutant discharge fee policy plays an important role in resource conservation and environmental protection.However,with people’s increasing requirements for environmental quality,many experts and scholars began to work hard to find a more efficient environmental protection system.After constant discussion and modification,the Environmental Protection Tax Law of the People’s Republic of China was officially implemented on January 1,2018,and the environmental protection tax has since replaced the pollution discharge fee.Based on the above background,on the one hand,the goal of the policy is to reduce pollutant emissions and improve environmental quality.Therefore,this paper evaluates its environmental effects by studying the impact of the policy on sulfur dioxide emissions and air quality.On the other hand,this paper evaluates its economic effect by studying the impact of the policy of changing pollution charges into taxes on the total factor productivity of enterprises,and then tests whether the policy of changing pollution charges into taxes can achieve the "win-win" of environmental benefits and economic benefits.The research content of this paper mainly includes the following four aspects.1.Firstly,this paper summarizes the characteristics of pollution discharge fee and environmental protection tax policy from the aspects of main collection terms and collection and management procedures,and compares their differences in substantive terms and collection and management procedures to interpret China’s current environmental protection tax policy from a macro perspective;Secondly,this paper analyzes the mechanism of the environmental effect of the policy from the perspective of the impact of the policy of changing pollution charges to taxes on the emission reduction motivation of enterprises;Thirdly,this paper analyzes the mechanism of the economic effect of the policy from the perspective of the impact of the policy on the production mode of enterprises.2.Empirical test on the environmental effect of the policy of changing pollution charges into taxes.In this paper,industrial exhaust emissions and air quality are used as indicators to measure environmental effects,and Difference-in-differences Model is used for empirical analysis.The results show that the policy of changing pollution charges into taxes has played a significant role in reducing industrial exhaust emissions and improving air quality,thus realizing the environmental dividend.On this basis,this paper also conducts a test of intermediary effect through stepwise regression,and the results show that the policy of changing pollution charges into taxes can reduce exhaust emissions by strengthening environmental protection law enforcement.3.Empirical test of the economic effect of the policy of changing pollution charges into taxes.This paper takes TFP as an indicator to measure economic effect,and Difference-in-differences Model is used for empirical analysis.The results show that the policy of changing pollution charges into taxes significantly improves the total factor productivity of listed companies,thereby realizing economic dividends.On this basis,this paper also conducts a test of intermediary effect through the stepwise regression method,and the results show that the policy of changing pollution charges into taxes can improve the total factor productivity of enterprises by promoting green R&D innovation of enterprises.4.Put forward suggestions on optimization of environmental protection tax policy.Based on the empirical results of the environmental and economic effects of the pollution fee to tax policy,this paper puts forward the following suggestions.Firstly,strengthen supervision and ensure strict implementation of environmental protection tax.Secondly,improve tax policy and set tax burden reasonably.Thirdly,improve the mass supervision mechanism and guide consumer preferences.Fourth,increase subsidies to promote green R&D innovation.Fifthly,deepen market reform and improve tax efficiency.Based on the above research,the innovation of this paper is mainly reflected in the following three aspects:1.Incorporate the data after the environmental protection tax was levied in 2018 to empirically test the environmental effect of the policy of changing pollution charges into taxes.The research on the environmental effects of environmental protection tax policies in China mostly focuses on the theoretical analysis level,and several existing empirical studies only discuss the impact of tax policies with environmental protection properties(such as sewage charges,resource taxes)on sulfur dioxide emissions and air quality.In view of this,this paper includes the data after the environmental protection tax was levied in 2018 to verify the impact of the policy of changing the pollution charge to tax on sulfur dioxide emissions and air quality,and then assess its environmental effects.2.This paper probes into the mechanism of the environmental effect of the policy of changing pollution charges into taxes.Most of the studies on the environmental effects of the policy of changing pollution charges into taxes in the existing literature of our country remain on the regression of the main effects,lacking detailed mechanism tests.In view of this,this paper uses the intermediary effect model to deeply explore the transmission path between the pollution fee to tax policy,environmental law enforcement and exhaust emissions.3.It provides an empirical support for demonstrating that the policy of changing pollution charges into taxes can achieve a "win-win" of environmental and economic effects in China.The existing empirical literature in China only discusses the effect of environmental protection tax policy from the perspective of environmental effect or economic effect,or only analyzes whether the policy can achieve environmental and economic benefits from the theoretical level.This paper not only empirically tests the environmental effect of the policy of changing pollution charges into taxes,but also empirically tests the economic effect of the policy,which provides empirical support for explaining that the policy of changing pollution charges into taxes can achieve "win-win" in environmental and economic benefits in China.