China would waive various taxes related to the construction of the country's initial four strategic petroleum storage facilities, the State Administration of Taxation said in a statement posted on its Web site.

Taxes such as business tax, stamp tax and rural land use tax would be waived, according to a statement dated March 15.

Prior to the statement, no government agency had formally said the facilities were being built.

The four facilities consist of a 4 million-metric-ton facility in Zhenhai, a district of Ningbo City, Zhejiang Province, a 4 million-ton facility in the Daishan area of Zhoushan, another city in Zhejiang, two facilities in Dalian, Liaoning Province and in Qingdao, Shandong Province �� each with a capacity of 3 million tons.

After completion in 2010, the four facilities will be able to stockpile 30 days' worth of oil imports.

China doesn't have a strategic petroleum reserve. Its petroleum stocks for turnover at refineries are just enough to sustain 21.6 days��'running, official data show.

In another development, domestic media reported that foreign companies in China would get at least a five-year cushion period to adjust to new rules that would eventually make them pay the same tax rates as local rivals.

The government might extend the period to six or even eight years as it unified tax regimes for local and foreign companies, Xinhua said, citing Jia Kang, head of the Finance Ministry's Institute of Fiscal Science.

This means that it could be halfway through the next decade �� or 14 years after China's entry into the World Trade Organization which originally forced the rule change �� before foreign and local companies pay the same rates.

Source: Shenzhen Daily/Agencies