Study on the Water Conservation Effects of the Water Resources Tax Pilot Program in the Yellow River Basin--Taking Shanxi Province as an Example

Abstract

China's water resources exhibit uneven regional distribution and persistently low per capita availability, with the Yellow River basin facing particularly acute water supply-demand imbalances. As ecological civilization construction has been elevated to a national strategy, water resource tax reform has emerged as a pivotal measure to advance ecological conservation and high-quality development in the Yellow River basin. As one of the first pilot regions, Shanxi Province has provided crucial practical insights for nationwide reform since implementing the water resource fee-to-tax conversion in December 2017. Therefore, this study focuses on the industrial sector in Shanxi Province to uncover the patterns of how water resource tax reform influences industrial water conservation outcomes. Current research on water resource taxes predominantly concentrates on institutional design, lacking systematic analysis of actual water-saving achievements. This paper innovatively introduces the DPSR model (Drivers-Pressures-State-Responses) into water resource tax research. It constructs a multi-dimensional evaluation system comprising 14 indicators and employs the entropy method and TOPSIS model to comprehensively assess data from industrial enterprises above designated size in Shanxi Province from 2015 to 2022. This aims to validate the industrial water conservation effects of the water resource tax reform. The findings reveal that the water resource fee phase (2015–2017) suffered from multiple issues, including excessively low levy standards. Following the water resource tax reform, significant outcomes emerged, with the policy effects exhibiting a “three-year lag and five-year manifestation” pattern. Although regional implementation disparities and inadequate supporting measures persist, the study demonstrates that the tax lever effectively compels enterprises to upgrade their technologies.