The State Council clarified the recent export tax rebate adjustments in a notice on March 3 to help local governments in their revenue forecasts.

The notice said that the central government will cover all export tax rebates from Jan 2015 and instead of an incremental refund of consumption tax to the local government, the central government will instead allocate a fixed amount of consumption tax back to the local authorities.

Detailed amounts concerning the export tax refund and consumption tax rebate will be decided by the Ministry of Finance, the notice said.

Aiming to improve policies to push foreign trade growth to a new level, the export tax rebate mechanism is part of efforts by the central government to deepen reforms in the public finance and taxation system.