China's tax burden is still lower than that of most developing and developed countries despite the rapid growth in its tax revenue, an analyst has said.

According to a latest report published by the State Administration of Tax (SAT), China's tax burden, measured by tax revenue divided by gross domestic product (GDP), stood at 18 percent last year, 0.5 percent higher than 2005.

However, the figure was still three percent lower compared with that of developing countries or 12 percent lower than industrialized countries, said Sun Gang, researcher with the Research Institute for Fiscal Science under the Ministry of Finance.

Sun attributed the 0.5 percent rise to the growing number of tax payers.

Excluding customs duties and agricultural tax, China posted a tax revenue of 3.76 trillion yuan (US$482.5 billion) in 2006, an increase of 21.9 percent year-on-year.

Meanwhile, preliminary estimations show its GDP totaled 20.94 trillion yuan last year, up 10.7 percent.

(Xinhua News Agency February 17, 2007)