Winemakers Call on China’s Top Legislative Body to Lower Taxes
Luan Li
DATE:  Mar 08 2021
/ SOURCE:  Yicai
Winemakers Call on China’s Top Legislative Body to Lower Taxes Winemakers Call on China’s Top Legislative Body to Lower Taxes

(Yicai Global) March 8 -- China’s wine producers have taken a battering in the past year as the Covid-19 pandemic hampers sales and imported wines continue to encroach on their market share. To support the industry, deputies to the National People’s Congress, currently in session at the Two Sessions in Beijing, have asked that taxes be reduced.

Chinese wine producers are under great pressure as they face steep taxes, much higher production costs than other wine producing countries and stiff competition from imported wines as import duties shrink, said Jiang Ming, deputy to the NPC and chairman of Tianming Group.

The wine industry should be incorporated into agriculture, as it is in many other countries, and the sales tax of 10 percent waived and VAT slashed to 9 percent from 13 percent, said Zhou Hongjiang, chairman of Yantai Changyu Pioneer Wine Company, the country’s oldest and biggest winery.

Import tariffs have shriveled to 14 percent from 63 percent after China became a member of the World Trade Organization, Jiang said. New Zealand and Chile have no import duties on wine at all and must just levy 10 percent and 17 percent VAT respectively.

As a result, the market share of imported wine has doubled in five years, surging to 60 percent last year from 32 percent in 2015, Zhou said.

The market volume of Chinese vintners is not large, and yet they must still struggle with high costs and taxes, said an owner of a chateau in Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region.

Editors: Zhang Yushuo, Kim Taylor

Follow Yicai Global on
Keywords:   Two Sessions,wine