Mikkal Herberg provides insight to energy taxes in China
Radio Free Asia quotes visiting lecturer in article
06/08/2010
Michael Lelyveld,
Radio Free Asia
BOSTON—China is tapping its energy industry to fund development plans for Xinjiang while leaving the door open for national reforms, analysts say.
A new resource tax on oil, gas, and coal producers in Xinjiang is expected to raise 2 billion yuan (U.S. $292.8 million) for the western region this year, although state media have estimated the cost to companies such as PetroChina and Sinopec as high as 5 billion yuan.
The switch to a tax based on energy prices rather than volume on June 1 could mark an end to a long-standing break for producers, but it also comes ahead of the one-year anniversary of deadly riots in the Xinjiang capital of Urumqi last July.
Read the article here.
Related Links
Mikkal Herberg is a senior lecturer on international and Asian energy at the Graduate School of International Relations and Pacific Studies, University of California, San Diego. He is also the BP Foundation Senior Research Fellow for International Energy at the Pacific Council on International Policy and also serves as research director on Asian energy security at The National Bureau of Asian Research.
