Individuals to be taxed for oil consumption

China is expected to change its oil consumption tax coverage to individuals from companies, and to tax consumers at the gas station after a consumption tax reform, said a tax official at the 5th General Assembly of Chinese Corporations' Tax Management and Innovation on Thursday.

The country will also adjust the scope of taxation, to increase the taxes for high energy consuming, highly polluting and resource-based products, said Cong Ming, an official from the State Administration of Taxation.

"Tax cuts may include cosmetics and gold, which have already become mass consumer goods and are not luxury products," Cong said.

It's necessary for the consumption tax to be collected explicitly instead of implicitly, he said.

He said that it is not easy to make a simple comparison between oil prices in the United States and China because oil prices in the US include tax and in China they don't.

The consumption tax has a macro-economic adjustment function, and is already the fourth-biggest tax, after the value-added tax, the income tax and the business tax. It is mainly aimed at oil products and luxury products, such as gold, silver, luxury watches and cosmetics.