730m farmers to pay no agricultural taxes
(Xinhua)
Updated: 2005-02-27 23:49

About 730 million Chinese farmers are expected to benefit from the agricultural tax exemption this year, as 26 of its 31 provinces, municipalities and autonomous regions have announced a termination of all agricultural taxes, said an official with the Ministry of Agriculture.

Fan Xiaojian, vice agriculture minister of China, made the remarks at a working conference held Friday and Saturday in east China's Shandong Province. He said that the exemption will release about 730 million farmers from taxes totaling more than 20 billion yuan (about US$2.41 billion).

Fan attributed the achievements to agricultural support policies issued by the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee and the State Council at beginning of this year.

Only four provinces - Hebei, Shandong, Yunnan and Gansu, and Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region - continue to charge agricultural taxes. These regions will reduce taxes by two percentage this year.

Fan Xiaojian said that China has increased the target of abolishing farming taxes within five years. The 26 provinces, municipalities and autonomous regions will meet the target ahead of the schedule.

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