l         In March 1985, the State Council issued a notice stipulating that China would implement the export tax rebates policy starting from April 1, 1985.

l         China reformed its tax rebates management method based on product tax, value-added tax and consumption tax in January 1994. A new export tax rebates or tax exemption system based on new value-added tax and consumption tax scheme was established.

l         In 1996, the Chinese government slashed tax rebates: product tax to 3 percent from 11 percent; value-added tax to 6 percent from 13 percent; and consumption tax to 9 percent from 17 percent.

l         Tax rebates were gradually enhanced in 1998 due to the Asian fi nancial crisis. General tax rebates rate for export goods were raised to 15 percent from 6 percent previously.

l         In 2002, China implemented an export tax rebates management method of tax exemption, tax reduction and tax reimbursement for production enterprises exporting their self-made goods.

l         The government adjusted tax rebates to 12.51 percent from 15.5 percent in 2003 due to economic overheating.

l         The Ministry of Fi nance and the State Administration of Taxation issued a notice in 2003 on the adjustment of tax rebates rates for exported goods.

l         The country eliminated tax rebates for many leather items used as raw materials starting from January 1, 2006 and cut tax rebates for other products.

l         Starting from September 15, 2006, China reduced tax rebates for steel, some non-ferrous metals, textiles and furniture. China also raised the export rebate rate for major technical equipment, some IT, biological and medical products and high-tech products as well as processed farm produce.

l         The Ministry of Fi nance and the State Administration of Taxation scrapped export rebates on 83 steel products while lowering the rate on 76 others on April 15, 2007. The rebate rate for 76 products including specialty steel, stainless steel products, and cold-rolled steel was reduced to 5 percent. The other 83 products include steel wire and steel sheet products.

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