Vice-premier Li Lanqing made the remarks while meeting with participants to the national conference on information technology in taxation departments.

He spoke highly of the achievements made by tax collectors from January to July, as well as the progress achieved in building the "Gold Tax Project" and updating taxation departments.

China collected 996.5 billion yuan (about US$120 billion) in tax during the January-July period, a 10.8-percent increase on the same period of last year.

Li, also a member of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the Chinese Communist Party Central Committee, said problems still existed in the field of taxation, such as tax evasion, tax swindles and unauthorized tax exemptions.

He asked related departments to make great efforts to build the "Gold Tax Project" into the world's top tax collecting management information system.

Li pointed out that more efforts should be made to improve the collection of personal income taxes and the taxes of top earners, which will help in the fair distribution of taxes.

He urged tax departments to take measures to crack down on all tax-related crimes.

(Xinhua News Agency August 14, 2002)