NDRC denies plan to cut car purchase tax to 5%

China’s National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) has never considered or put forward the plan to cut the tax on car purchases to 5 percent, Meng Wei, spokeswoman for the commission, said on November 15.

Meng Wei said that since the beginning of the second half this year, the auto market has been under great pressure. In October, China’s auto outputs and sales saw year-on-year decline of 10.1% and 11.7% respectively, the fourth month decline from July.

Several factors may contribute to the flagging auto market. First, it is difficult to realize sustainable and rapid growth for a large market whose annual output and sales are nearly 300 million units. China is No.1 in vehicle production and sales and No. 2 in car parc around the world. Besides, the purchase tax stimulus policy has unleashed some demands beforehand. Domestic and global economic situation also affected the sales of vehicles.

However, there is also some good news in auto market. The auto export maintained a high growth rate while the outputs and sales of new energy vehicle in September jumped over 50%, indicating the sound momentum of the industry’s transformation and upgrading.

“In spite of the pressure on companies’ operations in short term, it actually will be good to the market mechanism and weed out unqualified players to promote the industrial upgrading and facilitate the industry's development,” the spokeswoman said.