The city of Harbin, Heilongjiang province handed out 980-million-yuan ($154.82 million) in tax refunds for exports by the end of October, Heilongjiang Daily reports, on Nov 9, quoting the Municipal State Tax Administration as saying that is 380 million yuan more than for the same period last year, or a 63-percent year-on-year.

The Harbin Administration has also looked for ways to increase efficiency in the refund system, for exports and, as of April 1, they approved export tax refunds at county or district level bureaus and they began handling export tax refund appeals in a paperless way from May 1, simplifying the examination and approval process.

The Harbin branch is also classifying export enterprises to reduce the waiting period for a rebate range to 2 - 20 working days and it is working on an “Internet plus” service model to allow a preliminary review of rebates through digital data.

One tax accountant from the Harbin Electric International Co, one of the beneficiaries of the new policy, commented, “Thanks to the tweaked policy, we usually get the tax refund for exports only two days after filing the appeal.”