The Ministry of Finance and the State Taxation Administration jointly issued Monday a document, saying that individual and institutional investors will continue to enjoy exemption of the stamp tax in buying and selling closed-end securities investment funds listed on the Shanghai and Shenzhen bourses Jan. 1, 2003.

As the document does not give out a term of validity, analysts widely hold that stamp tax will be exempted on transactions of closed-end fund units for quite a long period of time.

The two ministries first issued a circular in 1998 when China��s first closed-end fund was born, saying that stamp tax would not be levied before the end of 1999. Later, the exemption was twice extended to the end of 2000 and 2001.

Though the two ministries did not issue any document, stamp tax has not been collected on transactions of closed-end fund units so far.

(Shenzhen Daily-Agencies)