Change to environmental tax means polluters will have to pay the price

CHINA replaced the environmental pollution fee with the environmental protection tax on Monday. The seriousness of the pollution, as indicated by the environmental watchdogs' monitoring statistics, will determine the rate of the tax. Beijing News commented on Monday:

For decades local governments have collected a fee from polluting enterprises. Designed to rein in the degradation of the environment, the pollution fee has failed to prevent environmental conditions from worsening.

It was not rare for enterprises to regard paying the fee, whose amount differs from place to place, as obtaining a permit to discharge pollutants.