A staff member receives a credit repair application filed by an enterprise representative at a tax bureau service center in Taijiang District, Fuzhou, southeast China's Fujian Province, July 21, 2020.Photo: Xinhua

As of November 10, China had cut or deferred taxes and administrative fees by more than 3.7 trillion yuan ($525 billion) in 2022, amid the government's efforts to incentivize business and economic growth, according to an official's remarks on Wednesday. 

Among the tax relief moves, 2.3 trillion yuan of value-added tax (VAT) credit refunds have been returned to taxpayers' accounts, 3.5 times the amount returned last year. Newly reduced taxes and fees stood at 789.6 billion yuan, with the amount deferred coming in at 679.7 billion yuan, Wang Daoshu, deputy head of the State Taxation Administration, said at a press conference in Beijing.

These efforts have effectively eased tax and fee burdens on businesses, with their tax and fee payments per 100 yuan of operating revenue dropping 5.3 percent, according to taxation authorities' monitoring of 100,000 enterprises.

The burden of equipment manufacturers fell 9.6 percent from last year's levels.

With the implementation of the reduction policies, the sales income of enterprises increased by 1.1 percent year-on-year, reversing an earlier downward trend. It further increased by 3.4 percent in the third quarter, continuing the recovery trend, Wang noted. 

The actions added momentum to the enterprises' development as well. Investment by enterprises in purchasing equipment increased by 4.9 percent year-on-year during the period, 1.0 percentage points higher than in the first half of the year, Wang said, and equipment manufacturers' investment in this area rose by 9.8 percent.

Fu Linghui, a spokesperson for the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS), told a press conference on Tuesday that the equipment manufacturing sector has played a clear supporting role in the nation's economic recovery. 

In October, the value-added of the equipment manufacturing sector grew 9.2 percent year-on-year, much faster than the overall 5-percent growth of the value-added of industrial enterprises above the designated scale in the month.

According to the NBS, the total value-added of industrial enterprises above the designated scale grew by 4.0 percent year-on-year in the first 10 months, 0.1 percentage points faster than in the first nine months. 

The value added of advanced manufacturing increased by 8.7 percent year-on-year, 0.2 percentage points faster than in the first nine months.

Global Times