China announced on Sunday it would spread a reform of its value-added tax regime to all industries nationwide, which could cut the tax burden on enterprises by 120 billion yuan (about 17.6 billion U.S. dollars).

The reform would help encourage technological upgrading at Chinese companies, said an executive meeting of the State Council, which also put forward a stimulus package of 4 trillion yuan to be spent by the end of 2010 to expand domestic demand.

The reform was aimed at a shift from the existing production-based value-added tax regime to a consumption-based one, which enables Chinese companies to get tax deductions on spending on fixed assets.

Source: Xinhua