Caijing finance magazine has reported that China’s central government is expected to receive about RMB17 billion in dividends for 2006 from major state-owned enterprises (SOEs).

The report, which quotes unidentified sources from the Ministry of Finance, states the government will start taking 10% of the after-tax profits earned by the oil, coal, power, chemicals, telecommunications and tobacco industries.

Other state enterprises will hand over 5.0% of their after-tax profits. Scientific research institutions and military enterprises will be exempt from the plan for three years.

It was reported earlier that China’s 159 key central government-controlled state-owned enterprises posted a combined profit of RMB754.69 billion in 2006, up 18.2% from the previous year.

Beijing stopped collecting dividends from state enterprises in 1994 during the financial crisis.

The illustration is Hu Shu-li, the editor of Caijing, which means Finance and Economy. She was named one of the Wall Street Journal’s Ten Women to Watch in Asia.
Source: Forbes