Toyota will be the top-selling automaker in China by 2012, said Shen Ningwu, deputy secretary general of the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers. SAIC Motor Corp. will be the top domestic automaker, he told a crowded room of industry executives at a Deloitte seminar last week.  20 Nov 2006  www.autonews.com

ANYONE earning more than 120,000 yuan (US$15,190) a year in China - expatriates included - will be required to file a personal income tax report starting next year as the country steps up efforts to combat tax evasion.

The reports, detailing salaries, dividends from bank accounts and other investments and gains from property rentals, must be submitted to authorities within three months after the end of each tax year, the State Administration of Taxation said yesterday on its Website.

The filings are mandated even for people whose employers report their incomes to authorities.

The first reports are due by March 31, 2007.

China residents will be required to submit their annual income reports to “local” tax authorities. The exact sites were not specified.

Nor was it clear whether forms would be available in English or any other foreign language.

Filings will also be able to be made through the mail and via the Internet.

Tax laws stipulate that all foreigners except diplomats must pay taxes on their earnings in the country.

Taxpayers who have income from multiple sources in China, receive earnings from overseas and those who have no employers to report their taxable income should file immediately after receiving financial gains, the tax authority said.

“Many higher-income individuals in the country earn incomes through a variety of channels, and some of these channels are not public; so tax authorities often have no record of the earnings,” the tax administration said. “The new regulation is meant to plug the loopholes.”

China in January raised the monthly threshold of personal taxable income from 800 yuan to 1,600 yuan to alleviate the tax burden on low-income residents and to reflect rising salaries.

Personal income tax rates are assessed in 11 levels and range from five percent to 45 percent, depending on income.

China’s middle- and upper-income classes are growing rapidly as the country’s economy expands. The country now has at least 320,000 residents whose net worth exceeds US$1 million, up 6.8 percent from 2004.

China’s individual income tax collections topped 130.5 billion yuan in the first half. The figure for 2005 totaled 209.4 billion yuan, compared with a mere 13.2 billion yuan a decade ago.

“This new rule will be the most important step in enhancing China’s individual income tax administrative system,” said Nora Wu, a PricewaterhouseCoopers tax partner. “Paying tax is just a fact in life, though no one likes it.”

The chief challenge is expected to be ensuring compliance, Wu said.

China is taking an effective step in mandating the annual tax reports, because the current system hasn’t been successful in guarding against tax evasion, Alfred Shum, deputy chairman for taxes at Ernst & Young China, said earlier.

The tax authority recovered 36.7 billion yuan in unpaid levies last year, including evaded taxes, fines and overdue payments, after investigating 1.08 million suspected cheats.  

Zhang Fengming  Shanghai Daily  2006-11-09 

Announced: 13 November, 10:00 a.m. (Beijing Time)
CPI inflation weakened slightly to 1.4% in October from 1.5% a month ago. Both food and non-food prices, and urban and rural CPIs trended down. The shelter price also headed down to 4.6% from 5%. At the same time, the PPI also declined to 2.9% on lower oil price recently, 0.6 ppt down from September. Low import growth and weak prices point to slowing domestic demand.

Russian energy giant will team up with China National Petroleum Corp (CNPC) to build 300 gasoline stations in China, in a move to tap China’s huge gasoline market.
A joint venture has been established between Rosneft, Russian’s largest oil supplier, and CNPC that will set up around 300 gas stations and process 10 million tons of crude oil a year, Rosneft announced here Friday.
The CNPC will own 51 percent the company and Rosneft the remainder, said President Sergei Bogdanchikov.
He told Xinhua that the the 300 service stations will use gas from China or Russia depending on which is less expensive.
Shell, Total and Exxon-Mobile also have schemes to set up joint venture filling stations in China, vying for a slice of the country’s refined oil market that have been pledged to be fully open to foreign competition by the end of 2006.
Rosneft’s combined oil supply to China in 2006 will total 12.5 to 13 million tons.
Rosneft is projected to transmit 1.5 million tons of oil to China through the Atasu-Alataw Pass pipeline linking China and Kazakhstan.
Source: Xinhua   http://english.people.com.cn/200611/11/eng20061111_320489.html   11 November 2006