SteelOrbis Shanghai
A proposal for an increase in China's coal resource tax has been submitted to the State Council, with it now seeming certain that the tax in question will be raised from one percent to three percent.
Coal is the most important energy resource in China. Of China's gross energy consumption in 2006, equivalent to 2.46 billion mt of standard coal (natural gas, oil, etc., included), 69.4 percent was accounted for by coal.
Since coal plays such an important role in China's energy structure, the hike in the coal resource tax will be transferred to downstream industries, and this will probably increase the upward pressure on the CPI index.