Delegates end session by scrapping farm tax
The National People's Congress Standing Committee ended its week-long session yesterday by abolishing the national agricultural tax and setting a date for the legislative body's next annual session.
The next plenum will convene on March 5 in Beijing, Xinhua reported, with lawmakers expected to review and pass the Eleventh Five-Year Plan on national economic and social development as well as reviewing implementation of central and local government budgets this year and looking at forecasts for next year.
About 3,000 delegates to the National People's Congress and 2,000 delegates to the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, an advisory body, meet every spring in Beijing. The NPC Standing Committee holds regular meetings throughout the year.
Committee members yesterday approved a motion to abolish the national agricultural tax.
The motion will come into effect on Sunday and benefit 900 million farmers, Xinhua reported. It effectively scraps the national agricultural tax, but farmers still have to pay provincial and local taxes.
NPC chairman Wu Bangguo yesterday described the tax move as a 'calming pill' to farmers, China News Service reported.
The perfecting of the market economy, he added, would see the introduction of a single tax system for city and rural residents. This could reduce the burden on farmers and increase their income.
Separately, the committee approved the appointment of Li Shenglin as Communications Minister. He was formerly a deputy minister of the National Development and Reform Commission. He replaces Zhang Chunxian , who has become party secretary of Hunan.
The committee also named several provincial leaders to new NPC committee positions, Xinhua reported.
Huang Zhendong , former Chongqing party secretary, now becomes a vice-chairman of the Internal and Judicial Affairs Committee of the NPC.
Former Hunan party secretary Yang Zhengwu has been named a vice-chairman of the NPC Finance and Economic Committee and former Heilongjiang party secretary Song Fatong becomes a vice-chairman of the Education, Science, Culture and Health Committee.
