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 convenience to the people.

We will further lighten the tax burden on businesses.

We will reform and improve VAT: We will turn the three tax brackets into two and adjust rates, prioritize lowering rates in manufacturing and transportation, and raise the threshold for annual sales revenue for small-scale taxpayers. Far greater numbers of small low-profit businesses will see their income tax halved, and the ceilings on deductible business purchases of instruments and equipment will be significantly raised. A policy of uniform corporate income tax exemption on the overseas earnings of Chinese businesses will be put into implementation. More logistics companies will enjoy preferential tax treatment on their use of land for storage facilities. Some expiring preferential policies, such as those on VAT and deed transfer tax on land transactions in enterprise reorganizations, will be extended.

These measures will, over the year, reduce taxes on businesses and individuals by more than 800 billion yuan, promote the transformation and upgrading of the real economy, and do much to unleash market vitality and public creativity.

We will slash non-tax burdens on businesses.

We will further review and standardize government administrative fees, and lower required payments to some government-managed funds. We will continue the policy of lowering the share paid by businesses for contributions to old-age pension, medical insurance, unemployment insurance, workers' compensation, maternity insurance, and housing provident fund schemes for the time being. Power grid charges and electricity transmission and distribution prices will be lowered, and the price of electricity for general industrial and commercial businesses will be cut by an average of 10 percent. We will deepen reform of the system of highway tolls and reduce tolls on highways and bridges. We will thoroughly overhaul charges for intermediary services.

By abolishing all unjustified fees and cutting all excessive fees, we expect to lighten the non-tax burden on market entities by over 300 billion yuan this year, which will leave enterprises with a much lighter load and free to focus their resources on their development.

2. Moving faster to make China a country of innovators

The latest global revolution in science and technology and industrial transformation are trends we must be on board with. We will do more in implementing the innovation-driven development strategy, and keep on making the Chinese economy more innovative and competitive.