BEIJING - Revenues from customs duties in China jumped 29 percent year-on-year to more than 1.61 trillion yuan ($256 billion) last year, Yu Guangzhou, chief of the General Administration of Customs said Thursday.

Yu ascribed the revenue surge to the higher prices of imported commodities, which rose 13.8 percent, Yu said.

Prices of imported crude oil, iron ore, and soybean, for example, were up 36.7 percent, 29.3 percent, and 26.4 percent, respectively. The price gains of imported commodities directly resulted in an increase of 210 billion yuan to the revenues, according to the customs authority.

Meanwhile, the nation's customs upped the tax on products made by energy-intensive and polluting enterprises. Income from tax collections upon such export products rose 45.7 percent to 19.08 billion yuan.

A government white paper released in December said that by July 2010 China had granted zero-tariff treatment on over 4,700 commodities from 36 least developed countries that have diplomatic ties with China. The country's average tariff level has also been lowered from over 15 percent to less than 10 percent since its entry to the WTO.

In efforts to promote balanced trade by boosting imports, China will keep import tariffs at a low level this year, with average tariffs on more than 730 categories of imported goods at 4.4 percent in 2012.