China's personal income tax totaled 245.2 billion yuan (30.65 billion U.S. dollars) in 2006, up 17.1 percent year-on-year, according to the State Administration of Tax (SAT).

According to SAT, tax on the interest of bank deposits moved up 28.7 percent to 45.9 billion yuan in 2006, 10.2 billion yuan more than the previous year.

SAT ascribed the increase in interest tax to rising outstanding bank deposits and the raise of deposits interest rate.

Bank figures indicated that the outstanding Renminbi-dominated deposits rose 16.8 percent year on year by the end of January to 34 trillion yuan.

Tax on wages jumped 10.2 percent to 126.4 billion yuan last year, 11.7 billion yuan more than the previous year.

A survey on 56,000 households in 32 regions in China show that the national average per capita income reached 1,059.89 yuan in the first 11 months last year. Beijing registered a monthly per capita income of 1,878.32 yuan, the highest in the country.

Excluding customs duties and agricultural tax, China posted a tax revenue of 3.76 trillion yuan (482.5 billion U.S. dollars) in 2006, an increase of 21.9 percent year-on-year.

Meanwhile, preliminary estimations show its GDP totaled 20.94 trillion yuan last year, up 10.7 percent.

Source: Xinhua