Chinese agriculture benefits from zero-tax policy
22 out of 31 Chinese provinces, municipalities and autonomous regions have scrapped farming tax in a government attempt to raise the low income of farmers. The zero-tax policies, initially expected to take five years to realise, have been implemented in major agricultural provinces such as
In 2004, the Central Government of China announced the plan and also reduced agricultural taxes by 3% and 1% in 11 provincial-level regions and other areas respectively, slashing regular tax revenues generated through agriculture by 28 billion yuan ($3.38 billion), nearly a third.
Official statistics show that farming per head rose by 6% in 2004, whilst nearly 600 million farmers benefited from direct subsidies from local governments and government bond proceeds. About 400 million peasants nationwide are expected to benefit from the exemption.
