Stamp duty on stocks raised 83.7 billion yuan (US$12.2 billion) in the first half, up 34.2 percent year on year, despite a tumbling stock market, the State Administration of Taxation said yesterday.
The increase was helped by higher trading costs though trading decreased in the period, according to analysts.
On April 24 the stamp duty on stocks was cut from 0.3 percent to 0.1 percent to bolster the lackluster stock market.
Until then, the benchmark Shanghai Composite Index had lost nearly 40 percent on worries of tight monetary policy, high inflation and over-valuation. Trading also decreased.
Stamp duty had been tripled on May 30, 2007, in a bid to drive out speculative trading.
That may explain why stamp duty increased on a year-on-year basis despite a shrinking trading value in the period - in most of the first half of 2007, the stamp duty was 0.1 percent while in most of this first half it was 0.3 percent.
Stamp duty on stocks grew 10 times last year to 200.5 billion yuan on the booming stock market last year, the tax authority said in January.
The benchmark index roared 130 percent in 2006 and kept growing more than 80 percent in 2007.
China's tax revenue rose 30.5 percent in the first half. China collected tax of 3.26 trillion yuan in the first half, two-thirds of last year's total. Tax income rose 31.4 percent to 4.94 trillion yuan last year.
Individuals paid a combined tax of 213.5 billion yuan in the first half, up 27.3 percent from a year ago.
In March the individual income tax levy was increased to 2,000 yuan from 1,600 yuan.
China's tax income has risen for years as the country's economy continued to grow. The gross domestic product grew 10.4 percent in the first half to 13.06 trillion yuan.
