Product oil consumption tax or change the double-linked levy

Yesterday, informed sources disclosed that the State Administration of Taxation is discussing the change of the consumption tax of gasoline and diesel from a single link of “production” to a double link of “production and wholesale”. A number of experts said that assuming changes in the levy process will help solve the problem of cash consumption by PetroChina, Sinopec and other companies, but the difficulties are not small.

In fact, on May 17th this year, Xie Xuezhi, the deputy director of the State Administration of Taxation, specifically mentioned at the video conference on the work of the National Tax System on the work of goods and services taxation. It is necessary to deepen the reform of taxation on refined oil products and study the move of the taxation of refined oil consumption tax to wholesale. The implementation plan for the link will study and formulate the "Measures for the Administration of the Collection of Product Oil Consumption Taxes."

China's refined oil price tax reform has been formally implemented since January 1, 2009, and reforms have covered the increase in the unit tax on refined oil consumption tax. Among them, the gasoline consumption tax was raised from 0.2 yuan per litre to 1 yuan, and diesel was increased from 0.1 yuan per litre to 0.8 yuan.

For more than a year, refined oil consumption tax has been levied at the production stage. "The main advantage of this levy is that the government is more convenient to collect," said Lin Boqiang, director of the Energy Research Center at Xiamen University. Sui Wanjun, deputy director of the Taxation Research Institute of the State Administration of Taxation, once explained that the collection of production links can also guarantee full collection. “At present, more than 90% of China’s refined oil is produced by PetroChina and Sinopec, and taxpayers and tax sources are relatively Concentration can reduce the cost of collection."

Prior to the introduction of this plan, the opinions of large oil companies such as PetroChina still hoped to collect from the consumption link. The main reason is that the payment will occupy the cash flow of the company.

Lin Boqiang also told reporters that when a ton of crude oil is processed into gasoline and diesel, the state taxation authorities may immediately charge this part of the consumption tax. “Assuming (the government) is to receive it early in the month, then PetroChina and other companies must wait until the end of the month to finish selling the oil. Only after this can we get this part of the consumption tax. From this point of view, it does bring certain difficulties to the oil producers."

According to calculations by Guojin Securities, PetroChina produced 10.97 million tons of gasoline and 26,400 tons of diesel oil in the first half of this year, paying consumers 15.16 billion yuan and 25.4 billion yuan in consumption tax; China Petrochemical produced in the first half of the year. Out of 17.77 million tons and 26.72 million tons of gasoline and diesel, it will pay 24.5 billion yuan and 35.6 billion yuan in consumption tax.