The country's total tax revenue reached 1,551.8 billion yuan (US$186.9 billion) during the period, an increase of 13.6 per cent or 186 billion yuan (US$22.4 billion) compared to a year ago, the administration said in a report.

"This accounted for 93.4 per cent of the tax revenue target set at the beginning of the year by the central government," the report said.

The amount of tax revenue collected by the central government during the period reached 949.6 billion yuan (US$114.4 billion), an increase of 13.8 per cent.

Tax revenue collected by local authorities totalled 602.2 billion yuan (US$72.6 billion), an increase of 13.4 per cent.

"Looking at the overall picture, the situation for tax revenue in the first 11 months is sound," the report said.

Tax expert Zhang Peisen said the strong revenue growth, which was close to the 12 per cent he predicted at the start of the year, was mainly because of the country's rapid economic development.

The Chinese economy grew year-on-year 7.9 per cent during the first nine months.

The government's efforts to beef up tax collection also contributed to the growth, said Zhang, a senior researcher with the administration's Taxation Research Institute.

Tax evasion has become a serious problem in recent years in some private and foreign-funded companies, as well as State-owned companies in some key industries.

Experts say China loses 30 billion yuan (US$3.6 billion) in revenue each year due to tax evasion by multinational firms alone.

A nation-wide campaign to fight tax evasion was launched at the start of the year- a number of companies and higher income people, including famous movie star Liu Xiaoqing, were among those caught.

(China Daily December 10, 2002)