IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/h/elg/eechap/23642_13.html
   My bibliography  Save this book chapter

Water taxation - from theory to practice: a case study of the Environmental Contribution Levy in Victoria, Australia

In: Biodiversity and Climate

Author

Listed:
  • Elliot Legendre

Abstract

Water is becoming increasingly scarce, due in large part to excessive human exploitation for the purposes of agriculture and industry. This paper examines a taxation measure as one response to this challenge in Australia, the driest inhabited continent on Earth. The Environmental Contribution Levy (ECL) on water revenue in the State of Victoria was implemented in 2004 following the worst drought ever recorded (1997-2010). The ECL is evaluated through the lens of two key principles: efficiency, which requires a strong incentivisation towards sustainable water management, and equity, which necessitates a differentiated tax burden among water users and uses. The ECL has served as a highly effective budgetary tool, raising significant revenues. However, a closer analysis reveals two concerning aspects: first, incentivisation of water users to modify their behaviour has been neglected; second, current tax design highlights a fundamental conflict, as the most water-intensive users (irrigators) currently pay the least.

Suggested Citation

  • Elliot Legendre, 2024. "Water taxation - from theory to practice: a case study of the Environmental Contribution Levy in Victoria, Australia," Chapters, in: Édouard Civel & Christian de Perthuis & Janet Milne & Mikael S. Andersen & Hope Ashiabor (ed.), Biodiversity and Climate, chapter 13, pages 198-215, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    • Handle: RePEc:elg:eechap:23642_13
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.elgaronline.com/doi/10.4337/9781035340521.00025
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:elg:eechap:23642_13. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Darrel McCalla (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.e-elgar.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.