Members of the National Committee of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC) recently called for the introduction of laws and regulations to contain the excessive consumption and wasting of public funds of China’s wealthier citizens, the People’s Daily reported Wednesday.

The CPPCC members said they aim to promote a civilized and more environmentally-friendly lifestyle.

Pan Qinglin, a member of the CCPPC and vice chairman of the Overseas Chinese Federation of Tianjin, reportedly suggested a luxury tax, with the aim of regulating and controlling luxury consumption by adjusting the imbalance of income distribution.

But Liu Heng, deputy Dean of the taxation school at the Central University of Finance and Economics and also a CPPCC member, said the situation in China is not suitable for creating new tax categories, as the tax on luxury would mainly concern luxury brands from overseas and could lead to trade disputes.

Liu suggested an “environmental tax” on cars which consume much energy and petrol, and he also said that it is important to treat domestically manufactured commodities and commodities from abroad equally.

The People’s Daily said that the luxury tax is widely used around the world - for example, US law includes a 10 percent tax for any car costing over $30,000 and, in Sweden, the after-tax price of some luxuries can be several times higher than the original price.

Li Daokui, director of the China and World Economy Research Center at Tsinghua University and another CPPCC member, emphasized the responsibilities of the media, saying that the problem of excessive consumption in China should not be completely solved by government, as the media also plays a role in this issue, the People’s Daily reported.

CPPCC member Tu Jie, who is also board president of Ouya Construction Corporation in Shanghai, called for a practical standards for the packaging of commodities, especially those of higher quality, saying that packaging is often a waste of resources, harms consumers, and is also a cause of corruption.

Dong Jinshi, secretary general of the International Food Package Association, was quoted as saying that the economic losses brought by package waste and unused recyclable resources reach as much as 30 billion yuan ($4.5 billion) every year.

According to the People’s Daily, the Circular Economy Promotion Law implemented last year provided a basic framework for dealing with waste of resources by “prevention and comprehensive treatment”, but it does not regulate the details about how to enforce the law.
A director of the Public Policy Research Center at the Shanghai University of Finance and Economics, Jiang Hong, who is also a CPPCC member, said that public funds should not be used to increase domestic demand, and he called for more measures to curb the waste of public funds.
The People’s Daily said that over 2 million cars in China are for official use, at a cost of 150 billion to 200 billion yuan ($22.6 to $30) each year.