Li, who is also a member of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China, sent letter to the national taxation conference opened Wednesday.

He noted that national tax revenue in the first half of this year stood at 758.5 billion yuan (about US$ 91.39 billion) , up 27 percent over the same period last year. He also sent congratulations to cadres who made great efforts for the achievement.

Li pointed out that with the gradual establishment and perfection of socialist market system, taxation has played a much more important role in national economic growth.

Tax collection in accordance with laws is a key guarantee for realizing tax-collection target, and a requirement for stimulating stable and healthy development of national economy, said Li.

Li asked officials and staffs engaged in taxation work to study President Jiang's speech on "three represents" (The Communist Party of China represents the requirement to develop advanced productive forces, an orientation towards advanced culture, and the fundamental interests of the overwhelming majority of the people in China), and make efforts to create a favorable environment for tax collection.

Jin Renqing, director of State General Taxation Administration (SGTA) said that focus of current taxation work is to collect taxes in accordance with related laws, which is also the opportunity and outlet of the work.

He noted that remarkable progress has been made in tax collection work and the social environment for paying and collecting taxes has also been improved. Jin asked to establish a complete system for implementing, supervising, and safeguarding tax collection work.

He urged taxation departments to improve cadres' quality and strengthen law implementation to realize various targets of taxation collection.

(Xinhua 08/02/2001)