Shanghai's tax revenue declines amid reform

Shanghai's annual tax revenue declined about 20 billion yuan ($3.2 billion) in 2012, after the city launched a pilot tax reform program to replace business tax with value-added tax, which aims to avoid duplicated levies. Hu Lanfang, deputy director of the city's tax bureau, said that a total of 159,000 companies were included in the pilot program by the end of 2012. Taxation was clearly reduced for small-scale taxpayers and services-export companies, the Shanghai-based China Business News reported on Wednesday. Another 10 provinces and regions are likely to join the tax reform program soon, the Finance Ministry said last week.

Land sales surge to 120b yuan in 10 key cities

Fifteen plots of land were auctioned in Beijing in February up to Monday, fetching 12.7 billion yuan ($2.01 billion) in revenue, with the city selling 36.9 billion yuan worth of land in the first two months of the year, according to Centaline China Property Research. Last year, Beijing sold plots worth 64.8 billion yuan, meaning land revenue in the first two months of this year was more than half that of 2012. Other key cities have also seen burgeoning land sales this year. Figures from the China Index Academy, a research institute under SouFun Holdings Ltd, show China's 10 major cities sold land worth 120.6 billion yuan from Jan 1 to Feb 26, up from 66 billion yuan during the same period last year.

China to evaluate WTO anti-dumping report

China will seriously evaluate a World Trade Organization report concerning its anti-dumping duties on European Union X-ray security-inspection equipment, and reserves the right to appeal, the Ministry of Commerce said in a statement on its website on Wednesday. "To the extent China has acted inconsistently with certain provisions of the anti-dumping agreement, we conclude that it has nullified or impaired benefits accruing to the European Union under that agreement," the WTO said in the 133-page report issued on Tuesday. "We recommend China bring its measures into conformity with its obligations under that agreement".

Commercial housing oversupply to continue

Oversupply of commercial housing will not change in the short term in Guangzhou, the city's land resources and housing administrative bureau said. Commercial housing developments with sale permits in the Guangdong provincial capital totaled 7.167 million square meters, and those under construction reached 49.176 million square meters at the end of last year, the Information Times quoted the bureau as saying. Commercial housing prices have been rising relatively rapidly in the city since the second half of last year.

Rate swaps snap 6-day gain as reverse repos may resume

China's one-year interest-rate swaps snapped a six-day run of increases as the central bank signaled it will conduct reverse-repurchase agreements, after last week scrapping the cash injections for the first time since June. The People's Bank of China on Wednesday gauged demand for an auction of seven- and 14-day reverse repos on Thursday, according to a trader at a primary dealer required to participate in such operations. It sold repurchase contracts last week for the first time in eight months, withdrawing funds from banks after they lent the most money in two years in January.

Mills buy US corn amid fears mold will hit local supply

Feed mills in China, the second-biggest corn consumer, are likely to order more US grain because of concerns that domestic supply won't meet demand before the fall harvest, according to Yigu Information Consulting Ltd. Snow and rain in northern China have increased moisture in farmers' unsold grain, making it more vulnerable to mold and less suitable as animal feed, said Feng Lichen, general manager of Yigu, which runs China's biggest corn information portal. Some mills are securing shipments from the US, the biggest exporter, for deliveries later this year using newly issued import permits from the government, as the cost of US corn has dropped, he said.

Tighter monetary policy needed: research agency

China needs to lean toward a tighter monetary-policy stance as the economy faces risks from excessive liquidity and credit, according to a research unit of the nation's top economic-planning agency. Authorities should drain more cash from the financial system to manage liquidity, and regulators need to enhance said banks' off-balance-sheet business, the State Information Center, a research arm of the National Development and Reform Commission, in a report published on Wednesday in the China Securities Journal.

COFCO gets $4.8b to expand grain processing

COFCO Corp, China's largest grains trader, said it will receive 30 billion yuan ($4.8 billion) in financing from China Development Bank Corp to boost processing and shipping of grains and oilseeds. The State-owned company will receive the money over the next five years and use it to ensure the supply and safety of grain and cooking oil, and for rural financing ventures to promote development in farming areas, the Beijing-based company said on Wednesday.

China Daily - Agencies

(China Daily 02/28/2013 page14)