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Your daily digest of the biggest business news in China, translated and summarized every day. China Spectator has not verified these stories.
Beijing plans one private bank for every province
The China Banking Regulatory Commission wants to run a pilot program that will establish one private bank in every province, according to Caixin, a respected business publication.
The Chinese government work report says there will be no upper limit on the number of private banks that will be allowed. Beijing has issued licenses to five private banks so far.
In 2014, the regulator approved the establishment of 14 privately controlled financial services firms as well as 108 privately controlled country credit unions.
Under China’s dated Commercial Banking Law, the minimum capital requirement for setting up a bank is one billion yuan.
(Caixin)
Chinese iron ore tax reform on the cards
Chinese struggling iron ore miners are unlikely to find any comfort in proposed changes to the way the commodity is taxed, according to an article in The Paper.
An iron ore tax reform plan is in the final stages of being drafted and will soon be sent to State Council for approval and could come into effect before the end of this year, according to a report published by Economy & Nation Weekly yesterday.
Online news site The Paper picked up the story, noting that it too had earlier been informed by an unnamed 'industry insider' that China's iron ore tax reform plan should be released in 2015.
Following changes to how the country's coal resources are taxed, China's policy makers are now looking to expand the new way of calculating resource tax to other resources. Taxes are currently levied according to value rather than volume.
State Council preparing to announce SOE reforms
State Council has established a 'Small Leading Group' to oversee the implementation of state-owned enterprise (SOE) reforms.
The leading group is headed up by the leaders of the State Council, according to comments made by Mu Hong, deputy director of the central leading group to comprehensively deepen reforms office and deputy director of the NDRC, on March 7.
Mr Mu is also quoted as saying that "we can expect that a series of plan for the implementation of SOE reform will meet the public this year" in an in-depth report in today's Beijing News.
Land revenue expected to hit around 4 trillion in 2015
Revenue generated from China’s state-owned land use rights is expected to be around 4 trillion yuan in 2015 for the third year in a row according to official government projections.
According to a Ministry of Finance report, revenue from state-owned land use rights are expected to decrease by 4.7 per cent, to 3.9452 trillion yuan.
Chinese local government's fiscal positions had benefitted greatly from land related revenues due to explosive growth in the real estate industry. However, the weak real estate sector is putting pressure on government coffers in the last two years despite the record high revenues collected.
(Yicai)
China to raise retirement age
China will gradually extend the age of retirement over the coming years to ease pressure on pension funds, a top official said on Tuesday.
According to The Beijing News, Yin Weimin, minister of human resources and social security, said the changes would be phased over the next five years.
According to the minister, people aged over 60 will make up 39 per cent of the population compared with the current 15 per cent by 2050.
Mr Yin said a detailed plan will be rolled out by 2017.