The State Administration of Taxation began supervising the implementation of replacing business tax with value-added tax (VAT) in tax bureaus of 10 provincial regions on Feb 20.

The aim of the monitoring is to get a clear understanding of the problems and seek suggestions during the implementation of VAT reform across the nation and improve measures to promote smooth tax work.

Since May of 2016, China has been implementing VAT reform across the nation.

The reform has proved to be both effective and efficient, as 500 billion yuan ($72.7 billion) in taxes were reduced for businesses across the nation.

Local tax bureaus of the nation carried out 8,336 specific tax measures to provide convenience for tax payers.

Despite huge improvement, problems remain in some places.

About 120 tax officials from the State Administration of Taxation and local tax bureaus of 25 provincial regions will be divided into 10 teams based on their expertise to inspect VAT implementation.

To optimize tax services and receive suggestions, the teams will visit local places for meetings with local tax officials, meet with tax payers, and secretly investigate local tax service halls.

In recent years, the inspection mechanism has played a major role in monitoring implementation of tax reforms.

In 2016, the Tax Administration of Taxation initiated 19 inspections across the nation, focusing on VAT reform, tax preferences for mass entrepreneurship and innovation, and taxation management reform, which effectively pushed forward implementation of major tax policies.

In addition to tackling problems during the implementation, the inspection teams will find and promote successful local work methods across the nation to advance efficient VAT reform.