The agriculture tax of each Chinese farmer decreased 89.6 percent year on year to 1.7 yuan (US$0.22) from January to September, a survey of 68,000 rural families showed.

In the meantime, the farmer's average expenditure on taxes and fees dropped 62 percent to 8.5 yuan, according to the survey undertaken by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) recently.

Revenue income by levying the agriculture tax would drop 93 percent year on year in 2005, from 23.2 billion yuan in 2004 to 1.5 billion yuan in this year, State Administration of Taxation predicted.

The NBS survey also showed that the cash income per capita of Chinese farmers reached 2,450 yuan in the first three quarters, up 11.5 percent over the same period last year.

As a proportion of the cash income, labor income grew 16.1 percent to 793 yuan, sales income from farm produce grew 18.1 percent to 1,131 yuan, and income from the operation of the second and service industries grew 15.1 percent to 359 yuan, the survey showed.

(Xinhua News Agency December 10, 2005)