'Increase resource tax in minority areas'
By Zhu Zhe (China Daily)Updated: 2006-12-28 10:20 A vice-chairman of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress yesterday called for a rise in the resource tax in minority areas to better protect the rights and interests of minorities.
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Ethnic regions that supply natural resources such as crude oil and gas receive lower compensation, which has slowed their regional development, Vice-Chairman Ismail Amat said while reporting to the committee on the implementation of the Law on Regional National Autonomy.
The law says that the State should give a "certain amount" of compensation to minority areas that supply natural resources to protect local interests.
But inspections found that the compensation in some areas remained unchanged for more than 10 years amid the soaring price of natural resources, Amat, a Uygur, told the 25th session of the committee.
For example, he said, although the price for crude oil had increased from 478 yuan (US$61) per ton in 1993 to the current 3,800 yuan (US$487), the resource tax for crude oil in parts of Xinjiang remains at 12 yuan (US$1.5) to 14 yuan (US$1.8) per ton.
In addition, some large enterprises, which have resource exploitation
programmes in ethnic regions, ignore local environmental protection and give
little compensation for farmland occupation, but leave all the problems to local
governments, the report says.
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