Chinanews, Beijing, June 29 – Starting from this year, China will implement a system of charging pollution cuasers for their polluting activities. The fees will be used to offset the operational costs for environmental treatment plants and or let them make moderate gains. Based on this principle, China will raise the environmental treatment fees, said Bi Jingquan, deputy director of the State Development and Reform Commission, the China Securities Journal reported.“In future, residents should know that they should pay for the environmental treatment fees. They are part of their daily costs, just like the costs they need to pay for eating, clothing, and housing.” Bi said this at the China Social Welfare Reform International Forum, held by the Peking University’s China Fiscal Revenue Research Center.The pollution fee of discharging sulphur dioxide will be doubled within the next three years to reach 1.26 yuan per kilo. Garbage treatment fee will be raised to around 200 yuan per ton. Sewage treatment fee will be 0.8 yuan at the minimum in cities and 0.6 yuan in county towns this year.Sewage treatment fee is included as a new charge in the water pricing reform. In setting the garbage treatment fees, China considers the costs that much of garbage will be burned instead of being buried under the ground. The water pricing reform and garbage treatment will start in large cities and later expand to medium and small cities, towns, and villages, Bi said.China has set specific targets for controlling the pollutants discharge and energy consumption amount per unit. However, both the two targets were not met in 2006. The situation has not improved during the first half of this year. If China wants to conserve energy and reduce pollutants discharge, it is imperative for it to take various measures, such as tax levying, pricing adjustment, and fiscal means, to meet the targets, Bi said.