China may delay property tax expansion - paper

BEIJING (REUTERS) - China may postpone expanding a trial property tax nationwide, a senior tax official said in remarks published on Monday.

Mr Wang Kang, the chief accountant of the State Administration of Taxation, said both the tax bureau and finance ministry were still working out which cities to include and the rate of tax to be levied in the pilot's expansion, according to a report in the official Economic Information Daily.

Beijing has been actively studying an expansion of its experimental property tax after it kicked off the pilot programme in Shanghai and Chongqing in 2011.

Many industry observers and officials had expected the government to introduce the tax to more cities from late 2012 to curb rising home prices.