Beijing will expand its tax-for-fees reform to cover 620 million farmers this year.
Huang Weijian, vice-director of the State Council's office for rural tax reform, said the fee scheme would now be extended to three-quarters of the rural population, the China Daily reported.
'Following the successful tax-for-fees experiment in east China's Anhui province over the past two years, the government has decided to broaden it to 18 other provinces and municipalities this year,' Mr Huang said.
The reform aims to replace exorbitant arbitrary fees with standard taxes.
A plan to introduce the reforms nationwide was shelved in June last year as the central government was surprised by the huge amount of subsidies required to pay to local governments for lost income.
But the introduction of the reforms to 18 provinces this year indicates that the scheme will soon be adopted nationwide.
