China’s Resource Tax Reform May not Extend to Nonferrous Metals 2012

The resource tax reform mainly covers resource and energy sectors in 2011. It is reported that tax for oil and nature gas will be levied from on weight basis to on price basis, and this kind of reform will be quite likely applied in non-ferrous mineral product sector in the future.

Although the Ministry of Finance encourages fully implementation of resource tax reform in 2012, the actual implementation of resource tax reform on non-ferrous mineral products will meet difficulties since grade of non-ferrous mineral products can not be easily standardized as energy products. Many more detailed classifications are needed to make the reform fairer, such as classification of mineral products and preliminary products. Therefore, non-ferrous mineral products are quite likely to be classified and standardized further in 2012, and the resource tax reform is unlikely cover non-ferrous mineral products.