China's total tax revenue rises 21.9 per cent during 2006.

(From BBC Monitoring International Reports)

Text of report in English by official Chinese news agency Xinhua (New China news agency)

Beijing, Jan. 5 (Xinhua) - China's total tax revenues reached a record high of 3.7636 trillion yuan (482.5 billion US dollars) in 2006, an increase of 21.9 per cent, or 677 billion yuan, year-on-year.

The figure, excluding Customs duties and agricultural tax, was revealed by Xie Xuren, director of the State Administration of Taxation (SAT) on Friday at a national conference.

The tax revenue accounted for over 18 per cent of the country's GDP (gross domestic product) in the year, 1 percentage point higher than …