China gives tax exemption to heating fees in northern regions

 SHANGHAI:  China's finance ministry said on Wednesday it would make residential heating fees in 17 northern cities and regions exempt from value-added tax (VAT), in the country's latest round of targeted tax-relief efforts

* Fees charged by heating firms to residents in places ranging from Beijing to northwest China's Xinjiang region will enjoy the exemption from Jan. 1, 2019 until the end of the heating season in 2020, the Ministry of Finance said in a statement

* The peak winter heating season in northern China runs from mid-November to mid-March, although it is longer in the coldest regions

* Chinese industry has also benefited from recent tax cuts, with electricity tariffs lowered after a reduction in VAT from 16 percent to 13 percent from April 1

* Plants used by heating firms that supply residents in the northern regions will be exempt from property tax and urban land use tax from the start of 2019 until the end of 2020, the finance ministry statement added.