China has announced a tax on chopsticks as part of a range of measures to protect the country's deteriorating environment.

In the most significant changes to the country's consumption taxes in 12 years, the Chinese Finance Ministry has targeted wooden chopsticks along with heavily polluting cars, solvents and luxury goods such as yachts and foreign-made watches.

The new taxes are aimed at "promoting environmental protection and economising on resources while better guiding the production and consumption of certain products", the ministry said on its website.

China produces around 16 billion boxes of disposable chopsticks every year, the equivalent of around 1.3 million cubic metres of wood, according to The China Daily newspaper: that's enough for 50 pairs per person in the world's most populous country.

But from April 1, they, along with other wood products like floor panels, will be subject to a tax of 5 per cent. China is the world's second largest consumer of wood after America, using 280 million cubic metres of timber every year, and is blamed for supporting rampant deforestation in eastern Russia, Myanmar and Indonesia.

In further taxes aimed at controlling pollution in China's fast-growing economy, large cars will also be hit by increased duties, with highly powered vehicles being taxed at 20 per cent, according to the ministry.

Taxes for smaller-engined cars and motorcycles will remain unchanged or fall, while hybrid vehicles will receive a discount, said the ministry, which made changes to reflect the Chinese Communist Party’s 2006-2010 Five-Year plan, which has the stated aim of reducing China's energy consumption while closing its growing wealth gap.

A further attempt to curb the country's energy consumption is visible in new taxes on naphtha, fuel oil, aviation fuel and industrial solvents. But the ministry said it would only collect 30 per cent of the new taxes to start with, and none whatsoever on aviation fuel.

The other main target of the new taxes is new range of luxury goods, once the preserve of a tiny elite in China, which are now coming into the possession of the country's growing middle class.

Golf balls and clubs, yachts and foreign-made watches will be all hit by new duties ranging from 10 to 20 per cent, while skincare products and shampoo, once thought of as glamorous accessories, will no longer will be taxed.

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