'In addition to the several tasks mentioned above, I suggest that the Chamber of Commerce will call for the restoration of the VAT refund policy for renewable resources as an important task for us.' At the recent four-time meeting of the third session of the All-China Federation of Industry and Commerce Paper Industry Association, Zhang Yin, vice chairman of the Chamber of Commerce and chairman of Nine Dragons Paper, said.
In the previous meeting agenda, Li Jianhua, Chairman of the Board of Directors of Huatai Group and Chairman of the Chamber of Commerce, repeatedly mentioned this content. He said that China is a big papermaking country and Shandong Province is a major papermaking province. However, there are basically no forestry resources in the province, no source of raw materials, and there is a shortage of forest resources in China. If you do not refund the tax, and encourage enterprises to use secondary fiber to produce high-grade packaging paper and cultural paper, it will be very difficult for enterprises to survive.
On May 29, not long ago, the Governor of Shandong Province Guo Shuqing personally participated in the research symposium held by more than a dozen offices for the paper industry transfer mode and restructuring. Li Jianhua once again reflected the papermaking enterprises’ policy. Craving.
For a long time, the state has always had tax incentives for the recycling of renewable resources. However, with the expiration of the preferential policy of “reimbursement and retreat” for renewable resources in 2010, the paper industry will no longer enjoy any tax incentives for recycling waste paper.
However, in recent years, under the complicated changes in the macroeconomic situation at home and abroad, the industry's overcapacity and profits have fallen, and the production and operation of papermaking enterprises have become increasingly difficult. It is intended to encourage the recycling of paper-making enterprises' resources and mobilize the recycling of renewable energy resources that are enthusiasm for recycling domestic waste paper. The tax rebate policy has become important.
As early as the policy adjustment, leading enterprises, the National Federation of Industry and Commerce Paper Industry Chamber of Commerce, and even the light industry management department constantly expressed their demands for restoring the VAT refund policy for renewable resources in the paper industry through various channels and methods, but under various reasons, policy recovery Still no substantial progress has been seen.
Under this background, Zhang Yin appealed to all the industry participants to unite and cooperate with each other. 'All things are afraid of concentration, and one day they will succeed,' she said.
Policy adjustment
For a long time, the state has always had tax incentives for the recycling of renewable resources, but with the continuous reform and refinement of taxation policies, some of the original tax incentives were cancelled in the reform. As early as 2001, the waste materials recycling unit began to enjoy the policy of exemption from value-added tax. The production enterprises that use waste materials as raw materials calculate the deductible input tax amount by 10% of the purchase amount indicated on the ordinary invoice.
The policy change occurred at the end of 2008. On December 9 of this year, the Ministry of Finance and the State Administration of Taxation jointly issued the “Notice on the Value-Added Tax Policy for Renewable Resources”, and the VAT exemption policy was abolished from January 1, 2009. Enterprises engaged in the operation of renewable resources shall pay the full value-added tax at 17%, and only provide the eligible general taxpayers with a two-year preferential policy of “reimbursement and return”. In 2009, they will return 70% after the first levy. 50%.
According to this Notice, the tax rebate policy has been completely abolished since 2011, and the tax rate of the recycling industry has risen sharply from 8.863% in 2010 to 16.12%. A large number of recycling companies are facing production suspension or cancellation, which directly affects the production of downstream profit-making enterprises. cost.
At the beginning of the abolition of the tax incentives for the renewable resources industry, the State Administration of Taxation explained the relevant documents. The State Administration of Taxation believes that the tax exemption policy for recycling enterprises and the 10% deductible input tax policy for waste enterprises started in 2001 are actually “exemption of tax on the upper link and deduction of tax on the next link”, which violates the “tax deduction and tax exemption”. The principle of value-added tax, which is deductible, is difficult to control the scope of recycling enterprises that enjoy the policy. It is easy for some lawless elements to take advantage of the opportunities, resulting in the loss of national tax revenue.
Especially in 2002, after the state canceled the license management of special industries in the waste materials recycling industry, there were more serious problems. In the short period of time from 2001 to 2006, the number of recycling enterprises enjoying the VAT preferential policy has soared from a few thousand to more than 60,000. It is estimated that the country’s tax revenues reduced by the implementation of this policy will exceed 40 billion yuan in a year. The State Administration of Taxation pointed out that 'measures based solely on strengthening management cannot fundamentally solve problems in policy design flaws.'
For such an explanation, Liu Quan, chairman of Beijing Tianlong Tiantianjie Recycling Resources Recycling Co., Ltd., did not agree with this statement when interviewed by reporters. 'This is totally unreasonable. How can we cancel the preferential policies of the whole industry because of the illegal behavior of some lawless elements? This is completely because of squandering food.' Liu Quan said.
He told reporters that the recycling resource recycling company that undertakes the waste paper recycling business, due to the particularity of the waste recycling business, the front-end recycling business is unlikely to generate VAT invoices, the company pays 17% VAT and 1.7% of urban construction and education surtax. All of them come from renewable resource utilization companies, and the tax burden of enterprises is 18.7%. “Almost all industries do not have such high tax burdens,” Liu Quan said. In his view, according to the current tax policy, enterprises not only do not enjoy tax incentives, but also have higher tax burdens than many industries. In this case, many enterprises have difficulty in survival.
In this context, China's waste paper recycling industry chain, recycling companies can only shift the tax burden upstream and downstream. Liu Quan admits that although 18.7% of the tax is theoretically paid by him, as a business, I will definitely transfer it out as much as possible to achieve corporate profitability. At the very least, I will maintain the operation, either lowering the waste paper recycling price at the front end or raising the downstream papermaking. Factory purchase price.
In this way, the waste paper recycling and utilization industry chain that recycles renewable resources and develops a circular economy will have problems: the front end recycling price is low, the enthusiasm of people recycling waste paper is affected, and many waste papers are discarded as garbage; downstream papermaking enterprises The production cost is increased, and the use of waste products of the country loses market competitiveness.
Therefore, the recycling of waste paper, which was originally responsible for resource recycling and green development, has become very difficult for enterprises in the industrial chain to survive in an environment where there is no government support policy.
The industry is deeply affected
The adjustment of tax policies has had an immediate impact on downstream paper companies.
In 2011, when the waste paper was used as a renewable resource, the VAT refund policy was completely cancelled. Shandong Century Sunshine Paper Group has already felt the impact of policy adjustment.
At the beginning of this year, Wang Dongxing, the chairman of Shandong Century Sunshine Paper Group Co., Ltd., wrote to the Paper Industry Chamber of Commerce to explain the impact of this policy adjustment on enterprises. He hoped that the Chamber of Commerce would stand for the support of national policies from the perspective of industry.
Wang Dongxing reflected in the letter that a considerable part of the waste paper acquired by the waste paper purchase enterprises comes from urban and rural individuals, government agencies and institutions, and it is impossible to obtain VAT input invoices. If 17% of the total value-added tax is collected, it cannot be obtained. The tax rebate has undoubtedly increased the corporate tax burden. In this way, the level of VAT tax on the waste paper purchase industry will be higher than any industry, which will make it difficult for enterprises to survive in the face of heavy tax burden.
Take Changdong Waste Paper Acquisition Co., Ltd., a subsidiary of Century Sunshine, as an example. In 2010, it purchased 640,000 tons of waste paper, including 430,000 tons of domestic waste paper. The sales income was 720 million yuan, the profit was 15 million yuan, and the tax rebate income was 38.1 million yuan. In other words, the company's total profit comes from tax rebate income, tax rebate income accounted for 5.28% of total sales revenue, while net profit was 2.1%, after canceling the tax refund policy will lose 3.18%.
Because the purchase of waste paper from the society can not obtain the VAT invoice, the papermaking enterprises can not use the domestic waste paper to carry out the VAT deduction, and the renewable resources VAT “first levy and return” preferential policy expires at the end of 2010, the tax of the profitable enterprise The burden will be greatly increased.
Estimated by Century Sunshine, in 2011-2013 after the tax incentives were abolished, the profit was reduced by 177 million yuan when the tax was returned 50% in 2010, which was 248 million yuan less than the return of 70% in 2009.
A person who has been responsible for the domestic waste paper procurement business of Huatai Group told reporters that only Hebei Huatai is used as an example. According to the half tax burden of the state-owned waste value-added tax, the annual tax burden will increase to more than 30 million. In the case of high national waste tax costs, the Huatai headquarters, which is closer to the port, is more likely to adopt US waste.
The National Association of Industry and Commerce Paper Industry Chamber of Commerce found that the cancellation of the VAT refund policy for renewable resources has caused a fatal blow to the construction of waste paper recycling system in China, especially for the production and operation of papermaking enterprises and energy conservation and emission reduction in the whole industry. Enterprises face multiple difficulties and survive only with a small profit.
After the cancellation of the policy, the domestic waste paper prices generally rose by 200-300 yuan / ton, basically the same as the price of imported waste paper, completely lost the cost-effective advantage.
After the domestic waste paper prices rose, more paper-making enterprises turned to the purchase of imported waste paper, which further increased the dependence of waste paper raw materials on foreign countries. The reduced competitiveness of domestic waste paper has seriously affected the enthusiasm of waste paper recycling enterprises, which is not conducive to the construction of domestic waste paper recycling system, and runs counter to the national accelerated energy conservation and emission reduction work and the development of circular economy policies.
The data shows that in the past 10 years, China's waste paper pulp production accounted for more than 60% of all pulp production, and increased from 61.91% to 77.64%. The demand for waste paper pulp increased sharply, but domestic waste paper recycling and waste paper quality However, it does not meet the needs of waste paper pulp production. Therefore, China needs to import a large amount of waste paper every year.
At present, China's waste paper imports account for more than 60% of global waste paper trade, and it has become the world's largest waste paper importer. Under this circumstance, it is extremely urgent to increase the recycling rate of waste paper in China and increase the proportion of domestic waste paper. However, in the past 10 years, although the recycling rate of waste paper in China has increased, it has only reached 46.01% in 2013, which is lower than the world average of 47.7%, and far lower than the level of developed countries.
China's waste paper recycling increased from 30.9% in 2002 to 44.6% in 2011. After the cancellation of the policy, the utilization rate of waste paper in 2012 increased from 71.2% in the previous year to 73%, and the national waste recycling rate dropped to 44.5%.
Guo Yongxin, a paper industry strategist and deputy director of the China Light Industry Information Center, said that the waste paper resource VAT refund policy has been abolished, making the price of domestic waste paper and imported waste paper basically the same, even higher than the price of imported waste paper, forming suppliers, especially foreign countries. The unilateral strength of suppliers has a negative impact on the recycling of domestic waste paper.
Death policy support
The macro environment and the industry situation have changed rapidly. The paper industry people under the double squeeze of the internal and external markets have been working hard since the beginning of policy adjustment to express their expectation for the restoration of renewable resources VAT preferential policies.
At the beginning of 2011, after the letter from Century Sunshine, the Paper Industry Association quickly carried out the special investigation of the impact of policy adjustment on the industry from the perspective of industry organization, and reflected the research results to the NDRC, the Ministry of Commerce and other relevant departments through the channels of the Chamber of Commerce and the National Federation of Industry and Commerce. .
Guo Yongxin told reporters that over the years they have continuously expressed this interest appeal to the National Development and Reform Commission, the Ministry of Commerce, the Ministry of Finance, and even the General Office of the State Council and senior leaders through various channels.
Not only that, some large-scale papermaking enterprises have also invited the leaders of relevant departments such as the State Administration of Taxation to visit Japan, which is well-developed in the enterprise and paper industry, and hope to reflect the impact of tax policy adjustment on enterprises.
In 2012, Yang Yimin, director of the Department of Goods and Services Tax of the State Administration of Taxation, visited the Century Sunshine, and the company took the opportunity to reflect the VAT refund policy for renewable resources to the State Administration of Taxation.
Century Sunshine recommends that in order to develop a circular economy, reduce social pollution and resources, energy consumption, and protect the environment, we will continue to provide tax incentives to enterprises that use waste paper and paper and their subordinate waste paper purchase companies, and at the same time, to avoid the confusion of VAT invoices. In the case, companies that enjoy tax incentives must meet certain conditions.
Leading companies and business leaders in the industry not only reflect their policy demands through industry chambers of commerce and competent authorities, but also exert their influence and seize every opportunity to appeal to the restoration of renewable resources VAT refund policy.
At the two sessions in 2014, Li Jianhua once again put forward the relevant proposal on “Recovering the VAT refund for renewable resources”. As a representative of the National People's Congress who has been re-elected for four consecutive terms, he has submitted the proposals for the restoration of the renewable resources VAT refund policy as resources to the two sessions since the policy adjustment.
In an interview with the media, Li Jianhua pointed out that after the cancellation of the VAT refund policy for renewable resources, the pressure on business operations has increased sharply, the enthusiasm and innovation power have been suppressed, the traditional model of waste paper recycling is difficult to change, and the recycling classification standard is difficult to implement, which is not conducive to further standardizing the recycling order. To improve the recycling rate and quality of waste paper, the ongoing pilot work on the construction of waste paper recycling system will be greatly affected, and relevant departments should resume the VAT refund policy for renewable resources.
Zhang Yin, who is also a member of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, is even more so. He admits that the Huatai Jianhua CEO is also calling for it. He is very happy and appeals to the entrepreneurs in the industry to appeal to the group. 'All things are afraid of concentration and concentrate on one day and will succeed.' Even as policy adjustments still take time, as an industry leader, Zhang Yin fully expressed his determination and confidence.
Under the long-term efforts of the paper industry, they have finally achieved certain results. Recently, the reporter has learned that the finance and taxation department has begun to solicit opinions on the relevant policies of the VAT refund policy for renewable resources. The possible approach is to carry out the process in the waste. subsidy.
At present, two-thirds of China's paper products use waste paper as the main raw material, 60% of which comes from the recycling of domestic waste paper, which has become an important part of the development of circular economy and low-carbon industry in the paper industry. It is bound to have an impact on the development of the industry.