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Law will not affect investors' enthusiasm

(Xinhua)
Updated: 2007-03-04 15:58

The draft corporate income tax law to be delivered at China's upcoming parliament annual session will not affect foreign companies' enthusiasm for investment in the country, a spokesman for the session said in Beijing on Sunday.

"The draft law will neither cause massive influence on foreign companies or affect their enthusiasm for investment in China," said Jiang Enzhu, spokesman for the Fifth Session of the Tenth National People's Congress, at a press conference one day before the opening of the annual meeting of the Chinese top legislature.

Also to be discussed and reviewed at the 11.5-day meeting will be the draft property right law.

The draft corporate income tax law sets a unified income tax rate for domestic and foreign companies at 25 percent after years of criticism that the tax policies are unfair to domestic companies.

China currently adopts dual income-tax structures, under which domestic companies pay income tax at a nominal rate of 33 percent, while their foreign counterparts -- who benefit from tax waivers and incentives designed to encourage investment in China -- pay an average of 15 percent.