Urumqi, capital of Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region, began to levy green tax instead of taking pollution discharge fees on taxable pollutants including air pollutants, water pollutants, solid waste and noises since Jan 1 of this year.

The region passed tax amounts plan of Xinjiang Environmental Protection Tax Law at the 33rd Session of the Standing Committee of the 12th People's Congress on Nov 29, 2017 and set the tax amount payable in Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region.

For air pollutants, the tax is 1.2 yuan ($0.19) per pollution equivalent. For water pollutants, the tax rate is 1.4 yuan ($0.22) per pollution equivalent.

To further encourage local enterprises to reduce pollutant discharge, the law set two types of tax deductions based on the degree to which enterprises discharges taxable pollutants to the environment below the discharge standards as prescribed by the state or the local area.

For enterprises whose discharge concentration is 30 percent lower than the discharge standard, they are levied 75 percent of the tax. For those whose discharge concentration is 50 percent lower than the discharge standard, they are levied 50 percent of the tax.

The levy of environmental protection tax aims to help improve environmental awareness of enterprises and promote economic restructuring. It forms an effective mechanism to promote ecological civilization construction.