Pan Yaomin, a Ji’nan CPPCC member (Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference) and local wheat mill manager recently earned cheers for taking on the government’s tax regime, in particularly, tax levied on steamed buns.
In his proposal to the provincial government, Mr. Pan points out that 17 percent of what one pays for a steamed bun goes to the tax collector’s coffers. Not only the rate is too high, it is higher than the rates of comparable food items, such as 13% for pressed noodles.
Given steamed bun’s status as the main staple in the majority of northern Chinese households, Pan suggests the government drop or cancel the “bread tax” to alleviate the ongoing food price inflation. Pan also argues that the high tax may contribute to food safety hazards, supposedly because high tax rate results in lower margins which increases sellers’ incentive to cut conners.
In response, the Shandong Province Taxation Administration says that the provincial bureau has no right to change the tax rate, and if taking the subsidies received by agricultural products into account, the actual tax rate is somewhere around 4%, instead of 17%.
- The Beijing News (Chinese): Relieve people’s living cost burden by cutting bread tax.