Speaking during the second session of the 13th National People’s Congress in Beijing on March 5, Chinese premier Li Keqiang stated that China is aiming to reduce the tax burdens and social insurance contributions of enterprises by nearly RMB 2.0 trillion ($298.3 billion) in 2019, in order to promote manufacturing and fuel the growth of small and micro businesses.
Accordingly, in particular the current value-added tax (VAT) rate of 16 percent in manufacturing and other industries will be reduced to 13 percent, and the current VAT rate of 10 percent in the transportation, construction and certain other sectors will be lowered to nine percent.