Taxes and administrative fees levied by the Chinese Government on
some industries affected by the outbreak of SARS will be waived or
reduced.
It
is the first time in Chinese history that such a measure has been
taken to protect suffering industries.
The reduction is effective from May 1 to September 30 and involves
more than a dozen categories of taxes and fees levied by both the
central and local governments, the Ministry of Finance said
Sunday.
The beneficiaries include restaurants, hotels, trading markets,
tourism, entertainment, civil aviation, road transportation, water
transportation, taxi and bus industries.
The central government also announced that it will allocate an
additional 812.6 million yuan (US$98.3 million) to improve the
infrastructure and capacity of local medical institutes in a bid to
prevent SARS from spreading to rural areas.
This fund is on top of 1.55 billion yuan (US$187 million) that the
government has already channeled to the construction of nationwide
disease prevention and control network.
The fund will mainly be used for restructuring hospitals designated
for SARS treatment as well as fever clinics and isolation chambers
at county-level medical institutes in rural areas. It will purchase
desperately needed medical equipment and vehicles.
The fund will also be used to build disposal facilities for
hazardous waste and medical sewage and to purchase specialized
transport vehicles.
(People's Daily May 12, 2003)