Resource fee for coal miners to rise

Coal mine owners across the nation will be charged higher utilization fees to curb wasteful mining, the Ministry of Finance said yesterday.

The extra charge is part of a series of taxation and financial measures proposed by the ministry to encourage energy conservation, an important part of the governments plans for China's economic expansion.

"We will soon charge resource utilization fees in the whole coal mining sector to achieve our energy-saving goal," Vice-Minister of Finance Zhang Shaochun said at an energy seminar in Beijing yesterday.