After raising the export tariffs on some rare earth products, the measures for taxation and regulation of the rare earth industry have been released again. The Ministry of Finance and the State Administration of Taxation issued a notice a few days ago and decided to make unified adjustments to the tax standard for rare earth ore resources, starting from April 1, and increase the rate by more than 10 times. It is reported that the adjusted standard for rare earth resources tax is as follows: Light rare earth includes cesium ore and monazite, RMB 60/t; medium and heavy rare earth includes xenotime and ionic rare earth, RMB 30/t. The current Provisional Regulations on Resource Tax stipulates that rare earth minerals belong to the “Other non-ferrous ore ore concentrates” tariff and should be subject to a resource tax of “0.50-3.00 yuan/ton or cubic meter”.

Rare earth is an important raw material for manufacturing energy-saving lamps. The substantial increase in rare earth resource tax will inevitably affect the downstream related industries and will also drive the further rise in the cost of energy-saving lamps.

Analysts believe that the substantial increase in resource tax revenues shows that the government is taking further measures to strictly control rare earth resources. Under such circumstances, rare earth prices may continue to rise. Statistics show that the current average price of rare earth metals is US$44,361 per ton, which is almost twice the price of last year.

Raising rare earth resources tax is seen by many as an important means of regulating the rare earth industry. During the two sessions this year, some members submitted proposals on raising the tax rate of rare earth resources. It is recommended that relevant departments increase the tax rate of rare earth resources and raise the market price of rare earths from the source so that they reflect the scarcity of resources and the environmental costs of exploitation, and pass The rise in prices has changed the relationship between supply and demand, effectively reducing smuggling and the purchase of hoarding rare earth by other countries.

Prior to this, in order to change the status of rare earths as a large-scale sale of Chinese cabbage, China has adopted a number of policy measures. In 2007, China began to implement mandatory planning for rare earth production and reduced export quotas year by year to limit rare earth exports. At the end of last year, the Ministry of Finance decided to increase the export tariffs on individual rare earth products since 2011. However, these measures have not received the desired results. For this reason, there has been a rising demand for higher taxes on rare earth resources.

In fact, highlighting the scarcity of rare earths through taxation is also an urgent time. According to statistics, China’s reserves of rare earths are only 27 million tons, and the proportion of total reserves in the world has dropped from the previous 70% to the current 30%. According to the current production speed, China's rare earth reserves can only be maintained for 15 to 20 years and will most likely need to be imported in the future.