China announced Tuesday its plan to impose a consumption tax on
disposable wooden chopsticks, wooden floor panels, yachts, luxury
watches and more oil based products as of April 1 of this year.
The Ministry
of Finance said the plan had been approved by the Chinese
Government and was designed to control and regulate energy
consumption, help protect the environment by reducing consumption
of timber resources and narrow the gap between rich and poor by
collecting a consumption tax on the luxury items.
China will collect a 5 percent consumption tax on disposable
wooden chopsticks in a bid to discourage their use as they are a
waste of timber resources, said the ministry.
The production of disposable chopsticks was using up China's
forests at a rate of 2 million cubic meters of wood each
year, the ministry said.
China sells 10 million boxes of wooden chopsticks domestically
and exports about 6 million boxes each year which amounted to 15
billion pairs of chopsticks, according to the statement.
China will also impose a 5 percent tax on wooden floor panels to
discourage the use of timber resources. It will also institute a 10
percent tax on yachts, golf balls and golf clubs and a 20 percent
tax on luxury watches it said.
China will collect a consumption tax on naphtha, solvent and
lubricant at a rate of 0.2 yuan per liter and 0.1 yuan per liter
for aviation fuel oil, said the ministry.
They added that the government will collect only 30 percent of
the tax on naphtha and solvent in order to lessen the impact on the
industry sector. It will also not collect the tax on aviation fuel
for the time being.
The ministry said it will scrap the consumption tax on skin care
and shampoo products as of April 1.
(Xinhua News Agency March 22, 2006)