China Dissolves Stamp Duty on Stock Purchases

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Sept. 19 – Starting today, the stamp duty on stock purchases will be abolished in an effort to rescue the falling domestic stock market.

The move to dissolve the 0.1 percent was done, “to encourage market confidence,” reported Xinhua. The new rule does not include sellers of shares which are still required to pay the 0.1 percent stamp duty.

Last April, authorities decreased stock transaction tax by two-thirds to 0.1 percent. This led to investors going on a buying spree and propelling the benchmark index by almost 10 percent for the largest single-day gain in more than six years.

The government’s investment arm, Central Huijin Investment Co. Ltd., has also started buying shares from the nation’s top three banks to shore up their stock prices. These include shares of Industrial and Commercial Bank of China, Bank of China and China Construction Bank.

“The decision was important for a stable operation of the capital market,” a China Securities Regulatory Commission (CSRC) spokesman told Xinhua.