China has just increased tax rebates for exporters for the seventh time since August 2008 as part of efforts to support exporters affected by the drop-off in overseas demand. Food companies, electronic and digital media product makers, as well as the ceramics and plastics industries will benefit from the new rebates, according to a statement by the Ministry of Finance. The new rebates are effective from June 1.

The China Sourcing Blog has translated the latest list of commodities, and the full list can be downloaded by clicking on this link:
 
ExportVATRebateAdjustment_16Jun09.pdf

Nearly half of the new items eligible for the tax rebate are food products, an industry not included in the previous six increases. Rebates on canned foods and fruit juices were increased to 15% from 13%. Some food products will get as much as an 8 percentage point increase. The inclusion of food items on the list is somewhat surprising, as demand in this industry is mostly inelastic and the industry itself is not directly affected by the financial crisis.

The rebate is on payments of the 17% value-added tax.

Rebates on products in labour-intensive light industries such as toys, shoes and hats, luggage and bags, and furniture have been raised to 15% from 13%. Toy exports fell 13% year-on-year in the four months to April, while bag and luggage exports fell 0.8% and shoe exports fell 0.6%, according to customs data.

Full export tax rebates, at 17%, are available for the hard-hit electronic products and digital media sectors, makers of products such as television transmitters, sewing machines, compact disks and CD-ROMs, generators, motors, and information processors. Export rebates on certain ceramic products have been lifted to 13%, while the alcohol rebate was pushed up to 5%.

The rebate on textiles and garments, which had already been raised to 16% in previous increases, was not included in the latest list.

(Source: Caijing.com.cn)