The Environmental Protection Tax Law will come into effect on Jan 1, 2018, as a separate tax law aimed at promoting the construction of ecological civilization. With the implementation of the Environmental Protection Tax Law, the pollution charge mechanism introduced in China nearly four decades ago will become history.

And since the environmental protection tax will officially replace the environmental protection fees, the amount will be collected by the tax department, instead of the environmental protection department.

According to the Environmental Protection Tax Law, enterprises, public institutions and manufacturing units that directly discharge pollutants into the environment will be taxed, and the volume of the discharged pollutants will determine the amount of their tax.

The new law stipulates that the taxation authorities and environmental protection department set up a cooperation mechanism for levying the environmental protection tax. Which means a new tax collection and management model: the enterprises declare their discharged pollutants' volumes and thus the tax amounts, the tax department collects the amounts, the environmental protection department acts as the supervision authority, and all parties share the information.

At present, the tax and environmental protection departments jointly implement the Environmental Protection Tax Law, as well as develop information sharing platforms for tax collection, and share the information on enterprises discharging pollutants.