Beijing plans to raise export tax rebates to help struggling exporters, says a senior trade official.
Deputy Commerce Minister Zhong Shan was quoted by China Daily newspaper as saying that Beijing would 'at the appropriate time, increase tax rebates on specific categories of goods, including labour-intensive products'.
The ministry confirmed the report yesterday.
The move, which will be the first since mid-2009, will lower exporters' costs, as global demand declines amid the euro-zone's sovereign debt crisis and the economic malaise in the United States.
Zhong has yet to reveal details of the planned tax rebates, but exporters - particularly those in the clothing, furniture, shoes and toys businesses - welcomed the 'timely' measure.
They said the tax rebates would provide relief as orders from Europe and the US were dwindling and wages at mainland factories were soaring.
'It is very welcome indeed,' Pauline Ngan Po-ling, chairwoman of the Hong Kong Young Industrialist Council, said of the planned tax rebates. 'We are under huge pressure, particularly with soaring wages.'
