Taxes reduced by VAT reform, revenue increases

China has achieved the largest tax cut so far through its value-added tax reform, with the total reduction rising by 60 percent in 2017 from a year earlier, according to data released by the State Administration of Taxation.

During the last year, 918.6 billion yuan ($145.93 billion) of tax was cut after the replacement of a business tax by VAT, compared with a cut of 573.6 billion yuan in 2016, said Wang Shiyu, deputy head of the administration's tax policy and regulation department, at a news briefing on Thursday.

The country's VAT reform, which is seen as a key part of supply-side structural reform efforts, was first piloted in Shanghai in 2012 and was then expanded nationwide from May 1, 2016. During that period, nearly 2 trillion yuan of tax has been cut, according to data from the Ministry of Finance.