China to post record growth in tax revenue: official

China's tax revenue is projected to exceed 2.5 trillion yuan (304 billion US dollars) this year, up 24 percent year-on-year, the State Administration of Taxation said Wednesday.

The figure, which excludes customs tariffs and agricultural taxes, represents a record high for the total volume of tax revenue, said the administration.

The projected growth rate is 4 percentage points higher than in 2003, when China collected 2.04 trillion yuan in tax revenues (excluding customs tariff and agricultural taxes), up 20.3 percent over 2002.

The administration predicted that China's tax revenue will increase by at least 500 billion yuan (60.9 billion US dollars), also a record hike.

The administration attributed the rapid increase to the country's fast economic growth, improved efforts by tax bureaus in collecting taxes and crackdowns on tax evasion.

During the first 11 months of this year, Chinese Customs collected 433.4 billion yuan (528 billion US dollars) in duties and tariffs, up 28.15 percent year-on-year.

Customs tariff totaled 96.3 billion yuan (11.7 billion US dollars) for the period.