China may trim tax rebates for textiles
TAX REBATES: China may soon cut tax rebates for exports of textiles,
garments and long chemical fibres in a further move to trim the
country’s controversial trade surplus, the official China Securities
Journal reported on Friday.
Rebates for textiles could be lowered to 9 percent from 11 percent
while those for garments could fall to 9 percent from 13 percent now,
the paper said, citing unidentified sources.
The authorities were likely to lower rebates for long chemical fibres
to 5 percent from 9 percent, it said.
Late last month, the same paper cited unidentified sources as saying
that rebates for garment exports could be lowered to 11 percent from
April 15.
Last year, China lowered export tax rebates on textiles to 11 percent
from 13 percent.
The National Development and Reform Commission, the nation’s top
economic planner, was thrashing out details with the ministries of
commerce and finance, Friday’s paper said.
The plan had been fuelling opposition from the China National Textile
and Apparel Council, an industry association that has lobbied to keep
tax rebates as they are, it added.
Policy makers have expressed growing concerns over the country’s
ballooning trade surplus, which has frayed the nerves of key trading
partners like the United States and flooded the domestic banking system
with too much liquidity.
The country’s trade surplus hit $46.44 billion in the first quarter
after rising 74 percent in 2006 to $177.47 billion.
On Tuesday, Beijing said it would remove or reduce export rebates on
a wide range steel products as part of its efforts to rely less on
exports as a motor of economic growth.
REUTERS |
