Tax officials say that from January the government will eliminate "middlemen" in the collection of land transaction taxes.

During a two-day conference in Beijing, officials announced the move is part of the central government's rural tax reforms to reduce the financial burden on farmers, China Radio International reported Sunday.

Transaction taxes on all land deals started in 1997, but they've been collected by different government departments which often take a percentage of the levy for their "services".

Officials say the state is expected to reap 50 billion yuan, or 6 billion US dollars from land transaction taxes this year.

Analysts believe the reform will not directly help farmers, but might enable local governments in rural areas to rely less on taxes and levies collected from farmers.

Source: CRI news