China will accelerate the pace of releasing fuel tax policy in the second half of 2007, according to the Energy Research Institute of the National Development (NDRC).

   The institution predicted that the policy would not come out until the coordination and linking work among ministries is completed, and attributed his prediction to three factors as followings.

   Firstly, the State Administration of Taxation listed the completing of fuel tax reform scheme in its work schedule this year.

   Secondly, the Ministry of Finance (MOF) once revealed it would accelerate the completion of fuel tax reform scheme and make that    
effective this year.

   Thirdly, Ma Kai, director of NDRC, said China would keep reforming the pricing system for petroleum products, natural gas and coal in the second half, so as to realize the marketization of energy price.

   According to the institution, China would begin to levy fuel tax and environment tax at appropriate time.

   According to an official with Sinopec, China's launching fuel tax would push up the fuel tax and reduce the company's loss. But a related source said China would lift oil resource tax first, which would make "the price of finished oil to hike for several rounds this year."

   Wang Jing, a researcher with Oriental Securities, predicted the appreciation of finished oil would be beneficial to Sinopec, because the company relies on crude oil import, comparing with PetroChina that suffers less impact from price fluctuation on international crude oil market.