THE National Development and Reform Commission, China's top economic planner, set the record straight yesterday on property tax.
It said a report on property-related taxes citing a research fellow with the NDRC was incorrect.
Yesterday's clarification came after China Times said there would be "no mention of a real estate tax" for at least three years, quoting Huang Hanquan, assistant director of the industrial institute of the NDRC.
"Comments made by any research fellows with the commission only represent their personal views and should by no means be taken as an official statement," the NDRC told Xinhua new agency.
Huang remained mystified yesterday. He told Reuters in a phone interview that he did not even speak with the newspaper and described the report as unfounded.
The China Times report had already caused "a very negative social impact because it confused the public about whether the central government would continue to be tough against speculation in the country's overheated housing market," Xinhua said, quoting the NDRC as saying.
Xinhua also said Kong Jingyuan, a senior official with the NDRC, had neither made any public remarks on real estate tax issues nor been interviewed by the weekly newspaper.
In the China Times report, Kong was quoted as saying that it was a misunderstanding that new curbs by the central government to rein in housing speculation, such as the introduction of a property-ownership tax, were imminent.
According to the report, Kong said the plan the NDRC was working on presently, designed to promote healthy development of the real estate market, was just a part of the 12th Five-Year Plan and would be released in the second half of 2011.
China in mid-April unveiled its toughest measures to cool the housing market.
Speculation on the introduction of a property-ownership tax has increased since a State Council, China's Cabinet, meeting chaired by Premier Wen Jiabao in mid-April concluded that work on drafting real estate-related taxes should be accelerated.
In China, tax is only levied during home sales, and a property-ownership tax has been regarded by analysts as one of the most effective ways to curb real estate speculation.