China's tax and environment department have got together to work out a taxation plan to promote environmental protection in 2008.

The environment tax, one of the key taxation policies China plans to push forward this year, is going through careful study and appraisal by the Ministry of Finance, State Administration of Taxation and State Environmental Protection Administration.

Two researchers with the Ministry of Finance, Sun Gang and Xu Wen, proposed three plans in their report published in November last year, according to Beijing-based Caijing Magazine.

The first plan suggests government collect tax from companies in accordance with how much they earn from the products which consume resources or pollute the environment, said Xu. He said this kind of general taxation would be imposed on all companies since almost all the products consume resources.

In the second plan, companies would pay tax according to how much pollutant they discharged.

Xu said the third plan would ask consumers of potentially polluting products, such as fossil fuel, ozone-consuming commodities, fertilizer and pesticide, to pay tax.

Meanwhile, the Ministry of Finance said it might be a more pressing task for them to raise the resource and consumption tax to give more consideration to environmental protection while expanding the current taxation system and adding new kinds of tax.

The country has already adopted the law of environment protection and other regulations and is encouraging domestic companies to introduce more environment-friendly technology and production models, according to the SEPA-sponsored newspaper China Environment News.