The Chinese capital Beijing's local tax revenue surged 17.3 percent year-on-year to hit a record 50.2 billion yuan (US$6.07 billion) in the first 11 months this year.

Despite the outbreak of severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) early this year, Beijing's economy has maintained a robust development momentum and that has contributed greatly to the increase in local taxes, said an official with the Local Taxation Bureau of Beijing.

Statistics show that Beijing's gross domestic product went up by 10.1 percent year on year to reach 278.8 billion yuan (US$33.7 billion) in the first 10 months.

The service sector, the leading contributor of local tax revenue, generated 168.4 billion yuan (US$20.36 billion) in added output value in the first 10 months, up 8.7 percent on the same period of last year.

The catering, tourism, hotel, transportation, cultural and sports and recreational businesses were hit by SARS, suffering massive losses in first several months this year.

(Xinhua News Agency December 8, 2003)