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Guangdong tax returns touch six-year high

By Zhan Lisheng (China Daily)
Updated: 2008-01-11 13:42

Guangdong Province collected 694.64 billion yuan ($92.62 billion) taxes last year, 37.4 percent more than in 2006.

The rate of increase in revenue in one of the country's economic powerhouses was the highest in six years.

Provincial taxation authority officials Pan Jianhong and Zhao Yongqing said the stock exchange stamp tax showed an astonishing growth last year. Corporate income personal income taxes, too, rose rapidly.

Stock transaction stamp tax fetched 67.43 billion yuan and corporate income tax 39.26 billion yuan last year, about 10 times more and twice as much as in 2006.

Guangzhou, Shenzhen and Foshan were the top three income tax contributing cities in the province.

The rapid development of the securities industry in Guangdong was behind the rapid increase in revenue, the officials said. The increase in stock transaction stamp tax rate across the country from 1 percent to 3 percent from May 1 last year to cool down the overheated stock market contributed to the increase too.

The officials attributed the rapid growth in personal income tax to the provincial authorities' efforts to minimize tax evasion, as well as to the change in the State's housing accumulation fund from July 2006.

The upper limit of the fund ratio was lowered from 20 percent to 12 percent of personal income.

Zhongshan University professor of finance and tax Lin Jiang said the rapid growth in taxation is a nationwide phenomenon, and Guangdong has long been a leading contributor to the country's tax income revenue.