Tax Cut to Benefit 900,000 Enterprises

China's new round of structural tax cutting is likely to benefit more than 900,000 enterprises nationwide, according to a working conference held on Monday to discuss the country's piloting of replacing business tax with a value-added tax.

About 710,000 enterprises have been covered by the tax-cutting program, and another 200,000 will be included starting from Dec 1 this year, according to the meeting jointly held by the Ministry of Finance and the State Administration of Taxation.

Shanghai piloted the program on Jan 1 this year in an effort to decrease the overall tax burden and boost the transportation and service sectors. The pilot was then expanded to provincial regions including Beijing, Guangdong and Zhejiang later this year.

Tianjin, Hubei, Zhejiang and Ningbo will also join the program from next month, under previous plans.

All the works are progressing in an orderly and effectively manner, and the performances of the launched pilot programs have exceeded previous expectations, said representatives at the conference.

The reform has effectively promoted the growth of tertiary industry, especially the service sector, and encouraged the development of small and micro-sized enterprises, those present at the meeting agreed.

In Shanghai, the tax cut has helped reduce enterprises' tax burdens by 22.5 billion yuan (US$3.57 billion) in the first 10 months of this year, while in Beijing, the new measure has cut tax revenue by 2.5 billion yuan in two months.

At the meeting, Vice Finance Minister Wang Jun urged further work to ensure full success of the pilot programs, following the development blueprint mapped out at the recently concluded 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China and related government meetings.