China's tax revenue increased 29 percent in the first half of 2007 to reach 2.49 trillion yuan (US$ 328 billion), 561.5 billion yuan more than the first six months of last year, the State Administration of Taxation (SAT) said on Wednesday.

Revenue of major taxes including domestic value-added tax, sales tax and corporate income tax all rose by more than 20 percent year-on-year, said SAT.

From January to June, industrial value-added tax revenue went up 20.9 percent, real estate sales tax revenue rose 30 percent and corporate income tax revenue surged 36.5 percent.

According to the SAT report, stamp tax from securities trading skyrocketed 7.7 times to reach 62.3 billion yuan in the first six months. In June alone, stamp tax revenue hit a whopping 31.8 billion yuan.

The Chinese government tripled the stamp tax on securities trading from 0.1 percent to 0.3 percent starting May 30, amid efforts to "promote the healthy development of the securities markets".

Tax revenue in eastern China was 1.786 trillion yuan, 71.6 percent of the nation's total. Central China contributed 15 percent of the tax take and western China 13.4 percent.

(Xinhua News Agency July 11 2007)