STMA Gets Assignment to Increase Annual Tax Revenues

Source from:  TobaccoChina Online 08/19/2009

The State Tobacco Monopoly Administration (STMA) - the regulator of China's tobacco industry - has recently received an assignment from the central government to increase its annual tax revenues by 70 billion yuan (10 billion U.S. dollars), at a time when China's overall tax revenues were in negative growth while government spending kept going up. The assignment for the STMA to increase its annual tax revenues came after the State raised the consumption tax rate on tobacco on May 1, 2009. In response to the tax increase assignment, sources with the STMA said that according to computation by finance authorities, the rise of consumption tax rate on tobacco will naturally lead to an annual increase of over 50 billion U.S. dollars (over 7 billion U.S. dollars) in tax revenues by the tobacco industry alone. Moreover, financial statistical data from the tobacco industry itself suggest that the annual tax revenue growth might be higher at over 60 billion yuan (over 8.6 billion U.S. dollars). STMA Director-General Jiang Chengkang said that efforts to ensure the growth of both taxes and profits in 2009 should be a priority task for the tobacco industry in the year, and that the whole tobacco industry should strive to realize a 10 percent growth in both taxes and profits 2009. According to data released by the STMA, the tobacco industry of China generated 449.9 billion yuan (65 billion U.S. dollars) in manufacturing and commercial taxes and profits in 2008, an increase of 16 percent over the previous year. Enditem