China Policy Journal Volume 1, Number 1, Fall 2018 | Page 13

China Policy Journal
1.2.5. Calculation Method
The calculation method was reformed
from being based on pollution concentration
and quantity to being pollution-equivalent
based in a more systematic
and rational way. In 1982, the
water-pollutant discharge fee was calculated
by the pollutant-exceeding quantity,
which was specific coefficient times
the highest exceeding tons. In 2003, the
pollution fee was calculated by the pollutant
equivalent instead of the pollutant
quantity, equaling 0.7 RMB times the
largest three pollutant equivalents (the
pollutant equivalent is the water-pollutant
amount divided by the specific pollutant’s
equivalent value) plus the doubled
penalty fare. The 2014 adjustment
increased the equation coefficient from
0.7 RMB to 1.4 RMB and then introduced
the block-rate charge. The fee calculated
from the equation would times
the degree it belongs to. Though the reformed
calculation method accounting
for regional economic level, characteristics
of local industrial pollution, even the
environmental cost, it was still far from
stimulating emission reduction. Then as
balancing inflation, regional standards
required to set the fee at 2.46 RMB per
pollutant equivalent, based on the consumer
price index (Wang et al. 2014).
2. Implementation
and Related Issues
2.1. Process Underlying the Water-
Pollutant Discharge-Fee System
Over three decades of implementation,
the water-pollutant
discharge fee was enlarged
from being collected centrally to being
collected at the county level. This was
implemented through institutional routines
and developed in accordance with
different phenomena, such as the transition
from a standard-fee charge to a
multiple-factors combined charge and
more stringent regional standards than
the unified regulation. Every step of the
policy improvement formed an attempt
to motivate enterprises and polluters
to reduce pollution. The fee-collection
process conducted through an apply–
verify mechanism: the water-pollutant
discharge unit applies for the total
amount of discharged wastewater first,
and then the environmental protection
agencies verifed the quantity, thereby
considering the plant’s actual production
scale and basing their calculation
on the material balance principle. Only
if the water-pollutant discharge got
permitted can polluters discharge the
wastewater legally. After the contaminating
behavior, polluters would be
charged the water-pollutant discharge
fee. The organizational process of apply–verify
policy is comparatively complex
and several problems and failures
appeared during its limited implementation.
Currently, the system has been
incorporated into the pollutant emission-permit
system.
2.2. Problems in System
Implementation
2.2.1. Low Charging Standard and
Weak Enforcement
Water-pollutant discharge-fee system
has been adopted as an economic-incentive
approach to controlling pol-
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