Energy Prices, Subsidies and Resource Tax Reform in China

ZhongXiang Zhang

CCEP Working Papers from Centre for Climate & Energy Policy, Crawford School of Public Policy, The Australian National University

Abstract: The Chinese leadership in November 2013 determined to embark upon a new wave of comprehensive reforms in China. This is clearly reflected by the key decision of the Third Plenum of the 18th Central Committee of Communist Party of China to assign the market a decisive role in allocating resources. To have the market to play that role, getting the energy prices right is crucial because it sends clear signals to both producers and consumers of energy. While the overall trend of China's energy pricing reform since 1984 has been moving away from the pricing completely set by the central government in the centrally planned economy towards a more market-oriented pricing mechanism, the pace and scale of the reform differ across energy types. This paper discusses the evolution of price reforms for coal, petroleum products, natural gas and electricity in China, provides some analysis of these energy price reforms, and suggests few areas of reforms could take place in order to have the market to play a decisive role in allocating resources and to help China's transition to a low-carbon economy.

Keywords: energy prices; tiered prices; differentiated tariffs; subsidies; coal; electricity; natural gas; petroleum products; resource taxes; desulfurization and denitrification state-owned enterprises; China (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: H23 H71 O13 O53 Q41 Q43 Q48 Q53 Q58 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2014-06
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-cna, nep-ene, nep-reg and nep-tra
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (29)

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https://ccep.crawford.anu.edu.au/sites/default/fil ... 2015-01/ccep1406.pdf

Related works:
Journal Article: Energy Prices, Subsidies and Resource Tax Reform in China (2014)
Working Paper: Energy Prices, Subsidies and Resource Tax Reform in China (2014)
Working Paper: Energy Prices, Subsidies and Resource Tax Reform in China (2014)
Working Paper: Energy Prices, Subsidies and Resource Tax Reform in China (2014)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:een:ccepwp:1406

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