Fiscal devolution and green tax administration (original) (raw)
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The Tax Burden on Wastewater and the Protection of Water Ecosystems in EU Countries
Sustainability, 2018
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Environmental taxation and industrial water use in Spain
The Spanish Water Act, 2001 shifted responsibility for wastewater treatment from municipal to regional government, and as a consequence the Autonomous Communities have begun to levy a Sanitation Charge, apparently with environmental objectives. Industrial demand for water in Aragon is estimated in this paper using a double logarithmic model with panel data to establish whether regional Sanitation Charges rationalise water consumption. The key explanatory variable is the Sanitation Charge, in addition to the water supply charges payable in the towns and cities of Aragon and other variables which capture the characteristics of the firms in the sample. The reduction in water demand achieved appears to be due to the environmental charge rather than to any actual increase in firms' water costs.
Water
The treatment of wastewater, financed through environmental taxes, is key to the development of a sustainable economy. The objective of this study is to verify whether the tax loads on wastewater discharges applied in Spain are effective, allowing the costs of secondary and tertiary treatments to be financed. First, the revenues collected from taxes related to the discharge of wastewater in the different Spanish regions, which reach an average value of 0.72 €/m3, are analysed. Second, the costs of secondary wastewater treatment, prolonged aeration, activated sludge with nutrient removal, and activated sludge without nutrient removal are studied. Additionally, the costs of tertiary treatments, with environmental objectives and for reuse purposes, are considered. The analysis carried out reveals high heterogeneity in the amounts collected through taxes in the different Autonomous Communities. In some cases, these amounts do not cover the costs of the treatments. An urgent review is th...
Cost of Urban Wastewater Treatment and Ecotaxes: Evidence from Municipalities in Southern Europe
Water, 2019
The principle of cost recovery established by the Water Framework Directive underlines the need for tax rates, which can raise enough revenue to finance the cost of treatments applied to wastewater. The objective of this research is to gain an understanding the different types of charges related to urban wastewater treatment that can be levied by the authorities responsible for this service. This paper also aims to determine whether these taxes contribute to guaranteeing the economic feasibility of the wastewater treatment plants. The proposed methodological approach is applied to 18 municipalities of a province in southern Europe in 2017. The results confirm that in most of these cases, the taxes levied do not guarantee adequate tax revenues to cover the running, maintenance and investment costs of municipal wastewater treatment plants. This situation leads to a lack of financial self-sufficiency in the wastewater management service, meaning that the imbalance between income and ex...
THE EFFECTS OF ENVIRONMENTAL TAXES An empirical study of water and solid waste levies in Flanders
Annals of Public and Cooperative Economics, 1995
Environmental problems are considered by the majority of economic agents as important factors in making public policy. As a result, economic and market-integrated instruments are increasingly being used as alternatives to traditional environmental policy instruments. This article aims to determine the actual effect of environmental taxes on pollution levels. I n particulw, a case study of Flemish environmental taxes on water and solid waste pollution is reported. A quantitative model for testing the actual effectiveness of environmental taxes is developed, based on similar studies that analysed Dutch environmental policy. The conclusions of this analysis are extended with a qualitative analysis of information provided by in-depth interviews. Datadriven empirical research of the Flemish situation does not * This article is the result of extensive research undertaken at the University of Antwerp, University Centre of Antwerp (RUCA), and at the Free University of Brussels (VUB), Department of Strategic Planning. The authors wish to thank G. Haemels (OVAM), H. Dumont (VMM) and an anonymous referee for their helpful comments on an earlier version of the paper. ** RBsumB en fin #article; Zusammenfassung am Ende des Artikels; restimen a1 fin del articulo. oCIRIEC 1995. Published by Blackwell Publishers, 108 Cowley Road, Oxford OX4 lJF, UK and 238 Main Street, Cambridge, MA 02142, USA.
Theoretical Economics Letters, 2013
Market failure involving pollution from wastewater discharges industrials, is corrected with the establishment of environmental taxes. Heterogeneity in the design of these taxes, with a different tax base for each EU member country, affects both the pollution parameters considered and their weight in the calculation of the tax payable. This paper presents a study on the variety of this tax in Belgium, Italy and Spain. Finally, we discuss the possibility of the same as correcting market failure.
The Economics of the European Water Framework Directive a Retrospective Remark Focusing on Sweden
SSRN Electronic Journal, 2016
The Water Framework Directive (WFD) explicitly acknowledges the role of economics in the process of reaching the environmental quality objectives. The purpose of this paper is to discuss the implementation of the WFD in Sweden based on standard economic theory regarding instruments for cost efficient-and effective solutions to environmental problems. A lesson is that although incentive based instruments are beneficial from a cost-efficiency perspective, the complexities associated with environmental water management may somewhat challenge their implementation. Flexibility is a key issue for cost-effectiveness and, since Swedish water management mainly consists of command-and control instruments, the cost effectiveness is likely to be limited. Furthermore, the paper also points at how policy instruments relate to the economic burden aspect and the PPP-both highlighted in the Directive.
EVALUATION OF THE EXPERIENCE IN ENVIRONMENTAL TAX REFORMS IN THE EU COUNTRIES
The urbanizing world, where human labour has been replaced by the mechanized machinery, is becoming increasingly dependent on the resources provided by nature. The demand of humanity in natural resources continues to grow. Due to the limitedness of the goods provided by nature, a human must take a more responsible approach towards the available resources by using the resources that are renewed more often and by protecting nonrenewable resources. Sustainable development is the field that analyses these paradigms. Social, economic, and environmental dimensions combined and the emphasis on one of the fiscal instruments for the purposes of sustainability bring forward the concept of environmental taxes. Environmental taxes may be interpreted as a fiscal instrument that transfers the tax burden from the “goods” onto the “bads”. Income generated by these taxes is distributed for stimulation of the sustainable economy based on conservation of the nature and more environmentally friendly production. The taxes considered may not only allow reducing the pollution and stimulating sustainable development of the national economy, but also influence the changes of the national tax structure. This article analyses the concepts of sustainable development, environmental taxes, and environmental tax reform. The development of environmental taxes, energy, transport, resources, and pollution in the selected EU countries is analysed. The analysis has shown that environmental taxes are sometimes allocated between the countries irrespective of whether a country has already implemented the environmental tax reform or not. In any case, each country should put own effort into environmental issues and seek sustainability.