Kaohsiung City Government’s attempt to levy a carbon tax on major polluters has ground to a halt because city councilors have failed to reach a consensus on the issue.
It now looks unlikely that the city council will pass the proposal any time soon after it wrapped up the spring session on Wednesday.
CREDIT
When asked for comment yesterday, Bureau of Finance Director-General Lei Chung-dar (雷仲達) gave the council credit for having discussed the proposal, despite its failure to approve it by the end of the session.
The city government approved the Autonomous Act on Levying Carbon Dioxide Tax (碳稅徵收自治條例), which would allow the city government to tax polluting businesses, in early March and referred it to the city council for review.
TARIFFS
The Act would require businesses in the city that emit more than 10,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide each year to pay a “carbon dioxide tax” to the city government, which would bring in about NT$2.8 billion (US$84.8 million) in tax revenues each year.
Businesses whose annual carbon dioxide emissions do not exceed 2 million tonnes would be obliged to pay NT$50 per tonne. Businesses that emit between 2 million tonnes and 4 million tonnes of carbon dioxide each year would have to pay NT$100 million.
Businesses with emissions between 4 million tonnes and 6 million tonnes would be required to pay NT$220 million, while companies whose annual emissions exceed 10 million tonnes would have to pay NT$700 million.
RESERVATIONS
However, Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Councilor May Zai-hsin (梅再興) and Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Councilor Lee Wen-liang (李文良) said they still had reservations about the proposal, fearing that it could affect the operations of local businesses amid the economic downturn.
KMT Councilor Lin Kuo-cheng (林國正) also opposed the proposal, saying that the city government should increase the tax rates for local businesses instead.
But KMT Councilor Huang Po-lin (黃柏霖) said businesses would be forced to reduce their carbon dioxide emissions if they were required to pay the carbon tax.
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