From the AFR:
Expectations are high that new leaders will use the “Third Plenum” to kick-start the next phase of reform in the world’s second-biggest economy.
…The JPMorgan chief China economist, Zhu Haibin, said a carbon tax and tax on coalminers were closely related.
“As far as we understand, both these are likely to be introduced in 2014,” he said via phone from Hong Kong.
Speculation has been mounting in recent months that Beijing will introduce a carbon tax. In March, the Ministry of Finance tax head Jia Chen said the government would introduce a set of new taxes to protect the environment.
…On the resources side, China went from a volume to value-based tax on oil and natural gas production last November.
“We believe it is likely for the government to expand the resource tax reform to coal in the next couple of years,” said Lu Ting, the China economist at Bank of America Merrill Lynch.
It is some comfort to know that the Chinese are comprehensively ignoring our own bumblings with same.
