Quick commentary: Call for fuel tax as soon as possible

The gradual rise of oil prices is indeed in line with the normal economic development laws. In the long run, energy petroleum is a non-renewable resource and a typical consumable product. It is destined that oil prices will remain in the rising channel for a long time to come. However, some media have attributed the rise in oil prices to the inevitable selectivity that is in line with international standards. I cannot agree with this.

According to foreign media, China’s oil price is the lowest in the world, which is equivalent to only 61% of the United States and 41% of Japan. However, this is only a superficial statistical data. It does not consider the objective factor that domestic fuel tax levies lags behind international practice. . Some people have done a preliminary calculation and allocated domestic road maintenance fees and road tolls to fuel consumption. As a result, the price of oil, including taxes and fees, is second only to the United Kingdom when the vehicles basically take the expressway; the price of oil and gas for most vehicles is equal to that of Japan. Very few vehicles with high-speed roads, including taxes and fees, are also higher than the US's 0.36 yuan. This still does not consider the fact that our wage income is not in line with international standards. If we join our salary is only 10% ~ 20% of the above factors, the relative price of oil and gas = 8.21 ÷ 0.15 = 54.73 yuan, 3.2 times that of the United Kingdom, the United States more than seven times. Although the conclusions are somewhat sensational, they have some reference. It can be seen that the hidden charges of all types of charges outside the oil price are spectacular, and it is not surprising that the international friend “Jiuji Monk is puzzled”.

As we all know, the world basically adopts a fuel tax to replace the road maintenance fees, tolls, and other tax collection fees. Since it is ubiquitous, it must have its rationality and superiority. The implementation of fuel tax levy can increase the government's macro-control ability, make charges more standardized, scientific, and transparent; promote social fairness, use fewer roads, pay less, and better reflect Use the frequency and intensity of highways to extend the life of highways; use the subjective desire of owners to save money and less cars, promote energy conservation and environmental protection; promote technological advances in the automobile industry; make new vehicle research and development pay more attention to reducing fuel consumption rates; and massively abolish traffic management departments. Redundancy, reduce the cost of charges.

As early as the end of 1998, when he was finance minister Xiang Huaicheng said in public: Now the vehicle and vehicle management fees and road management fees add up to 217, so the tax reform should be started from the cancellation of road maintenance fees and the implementation of fuel tax. On October 31, 1999, the 12th session of the Ninth National People's Congress Standing Committee passed the amendment to the "Highway Law" and officially incorporated the fuel tax for traffic vehicles into the law. However, despite reforms, although it is recognized that the fuel tax benefits the nationals, it is regrettable that this provision is still a “legal white line” to this day. Difficult production with fuel tax involves a multi-layered game of interests. For example, it is difficult to reconcile the tax allocation between local governments and the central government. The taxation department is unable to solve the “re-employment” problem of the “road insects” that 270,000 people depend on buying road money to sit on the road to pay for money. In the eyes of the deaf people, any short-term pains that exist behind successful reforms, as long as it is a good policy for the country and the people, should respect the wishes of the majority of taxpayers in the country, and promptly start with the system and eliminate all kinds of external factors. The resistance has prompted the implementation of the fuel tax policy as soon as possible.