Chongqing government reported total revenues of Rmb199.1bn in 2010, up 71 per cent over the previous year. The growth in tax revenues, including business tax, value added tax and corporate tax, stood at 40 per cent, reflecting a steady growth in the local economy.

In Jiujiang, on the lower reaches of the Yangtze, the local government also reported a record growth in tax receipts. Total revenues reached nearly Rmb12bn in 2010, up 35 per cent over the previous year. Out of this total, farmland tax, a levy imposed on turning farmland into industrial and other usage, increased by nearly 46 per cent to Rmb670m, a measure of the rapid industrialisation taking place in what is Jiangxi’s only major Yangtze port city.