Survey shows strong support for tax relief

Lin Jiang, dean of the public finance and taxation department of Sun Yat-sen University in Guangzhou, said the questions could be misleading if they are designed in general terms.

If the questions are designed to imply that public services would be affected if cuts were introduced, fewer people may choose to support large-scale tax cuts, and the phrase "large-scale" itself was not clearly defined, Lin said.

The dean said the key to tax management is to allow the public to know how taxes are used and how much are used in specific areas, such as education, healthcare and social security. A lack of disclosure may result in dissatisfaction, which turns into calls for tax cuts.

While government spending on public well-being continues to increase, tax revenues across the country grew at a substantially slower rate in the first half of this year, a result of downward pressure on the economy.

Lin said this could lead to fiscal deficits because government spending on vehicles, overseas trips and receptions will not significantly decrease.

To meet the shortfall, some local tax authorities are levying taxes on some enterprises in advance, which increases the burden on the businesses and could eventually hurt the economy, he said.

Dai Bohua, spokesman of the Ministry of Finance, said in March the structural tax reduction policy this year will mainly affect five areas, including reducing the tax burden on small enterprises, improving public well-being and pushing forward a pilot program to turn sales tax into value-added tax.

The government of Guangdong province announced last week the exemption and suspension of 37 administrative charges on businesses.

On Monday Vice-Governor of Guangdong Xu Shaohua urged stricter controls over administrative government spending to meet the fiscal goal.

liwenfang@chinadaily.com.cn