Original title: more rows and more payments, less rows and less payments, no rows and no payments (quotation)

Environmental protection tax has been levied for 6 years, guiding enterprises to calculate the "two accounts" of economic and environmental protection (theme)

Worker's Daily - Zhou Yi, a reporter from China Industrial Network

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This year, the environmental protection tax has been collected for 6 years. In the past six years, through the positive incentive mechanism of "more emissions and more payments, less emissions and less payments, and no emissions and no payments", environmental protection taxes have guided enterprises to calculate both economic and environmental accounts, consciously practice the concept of green development, strengthen pollution control, and reduce pollutant emissions.

In April this year, it has been 6 years since the first declaration of environmental protection tax. On January 1, 2018, the Environmental Protection Tax Law was officially implemented. In April of that year, the first batch of environmental protection tax payers carried out the first tax declaration.

In the past six years, through the positive incentive mechanism of "more emissions and more payments, less emissions and less payments, and no emissions and no payments", environmental protection taxes have guided enterprises to calculate both economic and environmental accounts, consciously practice the concept of green development, strengthen pollution control, and reduce pollutant emissions. Recently, the reporter walked into three of the first batch of enterprises that paid environmental protection taxes to see the effect of green transformation and listen to the "two accounts" of economic and environmental protection of green development.

Calculate environmental protection accounts and bring green benefits to enterprises

Huaneng Chongqing Luohuang Power Generation Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as Luohuang Power Plant) is one of the first taxpayers after the environmental protection tax was levied. Now its environmental protection technology and equipment have freed people from the stereotype of "high pollution" of thermal power plants.

Yang Yingge, the financial director of Luohuang Power Plant, said that six years ago, when tax officials came to publicize the environmental protection tax law, they helped the enterprise calculate an account: before the environmental protection tax was levied, the enterprise should pay a pollutant discharge fee according to the national standard, which is 1.2 yuan per pollution equivalent, and the pollutant discharge fee is expected to be about 8 million yuan. After the environmental protection tax is levied, the environmental protection tax standard implemented in Chongqing is 2.4 yuan per pollution equivalent, and the tax burden will double when the power generation capacity remains unchanged.

The reason why thermal power plants are criticized as "high pollution" is that they are technologically backward, such as inadequate coal combustion and lack of flue gas treatment equipment. For this reason, Luohuang Power Plant has carried out ultra-low emission transformation on all six generating units, and added wind and dust prevention nets in the coal yard.

"In the first year of the implementation of the environmental protection tax law, we generated 73.1% less pollution equivalent than in 2017, paid 2.14 million yuan of environmental protection tax, and reduced 73% compared with 7.96 million yuan of pollution discharge fee in 2017." Yang Yingge said.

The two accounts before and after let Luohuang Power Plant see the benefits of green transformation. In 2020, Luohuang Power Plant completed the first sludge coupled power generation project in southwest China, and started the harmless disposal of urban sludge by "cross-border order receiving". The project has an annual wet sludge treatment capacity of 400000 tons, accounting for half of the total domestic sludge in Chongqing, saving 29600 tons of standard coal and reducing 82800 tons of carbon dioxide annually.

"This road of transformation has enabled us to achieve a double harvest of environmental protection benefits and economic benefits, and environmental tax alone will enjoy a reduction of more than 20 million yuan," Yang Yingge said.

Not only "small account", but also "big account"

When will the cost of investment in environmental protection renovation projects be recovered? In 2018, when Wang Lixin, the deputy general manager of Gansu Yinguang Juyin Chemical Co., Ltd., insisted on starting the environmental protection technology transformation project, he was constantly questioned by the management. Now, his persistence has paid off, and this question has also been answered.

The company is a large state-owned chemical enterprise. Before the implementation of environmental protection tax, the enterprise discharged more than 900 tons of various pollutants every year. In 2018, under the constraints of the environmental tax policy, the enterprise decided to launch the environmental protection system transformation project.

Wang Lixin recalled that at first, some people thought that the environmental protection transformation cycle was long, which would affect the normal production of the company; Some people also think that the investment in environmental protection technology transformation is too large to recover the cost in the short term.

"For environmental protection, we should not only calculate 'small accounts' and' immediate accounts', but also 'big accounts' and' long-term accounts'," Wang Lixin said.

Practice has proved that the cost recovery speed of environmental protection investment is far faster than Wang Lixin expected. In 2021, the enterprise will receive a one-time pollution prevention and control fund of nearly 10 million yuan from the ecological environment department. In 2023, due to environmental protection, technology and other reasons, enterprises will be recognized as advanced manufacturing industries and begin to enjoy the value-added tax deduction policy for advanced manufacturing industries. "The annual allowance of more than 8 million yuan not only greatly shortens the speed of cost recovery, but also brings considerable benefits to enterprises," said Wang Lixin.

Up to now, Gansu Yinguang Juyin Chemical has invested more than 90 million yuan in environmental protection technology improvement. Through technical improvement, the discharged wastewater of Juyin Chemical has reached the national urban sewage Class A standard, the annual emissions of particulate matter and sulfur dioxide have decreased by 37.7% and 44.6% respectively, the chemical oxygen demand (COD) of water pollutants and the concentration of ammonia nitrogen have decreased by 24.6% and 76.3% respectively, and the overall emission concentration of pollutants is more than 50% lower than the national standard.

Level the "solid waste mountain" and repay the ecological "debt"

The environmental protection tax encourages cleaner production, centralized treatment and recycling. For enterprises, it is the most difficult to achieve recycling, but the benefits are also the most obvious. Guizhou Chuanheng Chemical Co., Ltd. has been exploring the road of recycling for more than ten years, and has a say in this regard.

On the east side of the production base of Guizhou Chuanheng Chemical Plant, there is a special yard for stacking phosphogypsum solid waste. Because the waste is piled too high, the factory people call it "solid waste mountain".

"It has always been our vision to shovel the 'solid waste mountain' and pay off the ecological 'debt'." Long Hui, director of the company's technology research and development center, said that on the way to explore the comprehensive utilization of phosphogypsum, they have tried many ways, but none of them can effectively use the waste.

"The levying of environmental protection tax is an opportunity, which makes us determined to restart the research project of comprehensive utilization of phosphogypsum." He Yonghui, the financial director of Guizhou Chuanheng Chemical, said that in 2018, enterprises successively invested nearly 100 million yuan in the treatment and comprehensive utilization of water, slag and gas, and jointly developed "semi hydrated phosphogypsum modified cementitious materials and filling technology" with Beijing University of Science and Technology, The modified hemihydrate phosphogypsum is used for mine filling.

Since 2019, Guizhou Chuanheng Chemical Co., Ltd. has not only fully absorbed the newly added phosphogypsum waste, but also absorbed about 600000 tons of phosphogypsum waste every year. According to estimates, only the products produced from phosphate rock waste residue can achieve an annual revenue of 3.2 billion yuan, and the effective treatment of solid waste also allows enterprises to enjoy about 2.8 million yuan of environmental tax relief.

"Now, the 'solid waste mountain' has shrunk by 1/6 and is expected to disappear completely in a few years," He Yonghui said.