An agriculture tax levied on all China's farmers will be abolished within three years, the China Daily quoted officials saying Saturday.
Chinese Prime Minister Wen Jiabao announced in March that the national agriculture tax would take five years to phase out.
But the China Daily reported that finance official Chen Xiwen had recently told a closed-door meeting of other top officials that "farmers' agricultural tax is sure to be cancelled within three years."
"This is good news for rural people who currently earn an average monthly income of about 200 yuan (24 US dollars)," senior agriculture researcher Jiang Zhongyi told the paper.
The tax brings between 30 and 40 billion yuan (3.6 to 4.8 billion dollars) to the central government annually, about five percent of its revenue.
Local governments also levy additional fees of around 100 billion yuan on rural areas, the paper said.
While China needs only 130 million farmers and 20 million stockbreeders, there is a labour force of 480 million in rural areas, deputy agriculture minister Zhang Baowen said in state media reports this week.
Around 160 million rural people have found work in the countryside outside of the agriculture sector, but there are more than 150 million people who are without work.
In 2003, China had 760 million people living in its rural areas and 520 million in urban areas, according to official figures.
Comments
Comments are closed.