VAT reform reduces tax

China's pilot program to replace business tax with value-added tax (VAT) reduced tax revenue by 191.8 billion yuan ($30.7 billion) in 2014, the tax authority said Wednesday.

The country expanded the VAT reform to the railway transportation, postal and telecommunications sectors in 2014, with the latter three sectors covering a total of 26,833 taxpayers, Guo Xiaolin, a spokesman of the State Administration of Taxation, told a press conference in Beijing.

The change reduced the burden for railway transportation and postal taxpayers by 800 million yuan and 400 million yuan respectively, but increased the tax burden for the telecom sector by 6.4 billion yuan, according to Guo.

The VAT reform has played an active role in developing the country's services industry, Guo said. He noted that the administration plans to expand the reform to the real estate and construction, financial and insurance, as well as consumer services sectors in 2015.