Economic powerhouse China gives new tax breaks as Sri Lanka looks to rationalise!

Whilst Sri Lanka is planning to rationalise incentives, China last week unveiled a range of new measures, including tax breaks, to further empower the world’s economic powerhouse.

A Press Trust of India report filed out of Beijing said in a move to boost employment opportunities, China on Friday announced a range of measures offering preferential tax measures, including tax breaks, to unemployed people if they want to start their own business.

Tax privilege will be given to more registered jobless people who intend to establish their own business, including laid-off workers, college graduates, migrant workers, people experiencing employment difficulty, zero-employment families, and urban residents receiving the government minimum living allowances, a policy paper released by the Ministry said.

New college graduates starting their own businesses will also be granted favourable tax treatment, it said.

Applications for the tax preference will be accepted from 1 January 2011 to 31 December 2013 and specific policies will be jointly formulated by the Ministry of Finance, State Administration of Taxation, Ministry of Human Resource and Social Security and Ministry of Education, Xinhua news agency quoted the paper as saying.  China’s urban unemployment rate stood at 4.1 per cent at the end of September, with 9.05 million urbanites registered as unemployed, according to data from the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security.

At the end of 2009, China’s registered unemployment rate was 4.3 per cent.  The Government aims to keep the urban registered unemployment rate below 4.6 per cent this year.