The Chinese government is to double the land use fees on new sites for construction from January 1, 2007.

The Finance Ministry, the Ministry of Land and Resources and the People's Bank of China have issued a notice adjusting the land use fees.

The notice requires 30 percent of the collected land use fees to be handed over to the central revenue, while 70 percent is to be retained by the provincial-level government.

The notice said both are to be used specifically for the development of cultivated land.

Pan Ming, of the Ministry of Land and Resources, said the new standards would have a positive impact on the protection and development of cultivated land.

The country had made great efforts to stop excessive use of land for construction and industrial projects, checking violations of laws and regulations in land requisitions, and banning the illegal requisition of farmland.

The current land use fees were set in 1999 and have 15 classes with the highest class at 70 yuan (8.75 U.S. dollars) per square meter and the lowest at five yuan.

Pan said the current standards failed to match actual earnings on the land use and had failed to discourage the blind expansion of land use for construction.

Collected land use fees in 2005 were only 21.45 billion yuan, compared with 76.3 billion yuan of net earnings on newly added land for construction.

The notice said the supervision of the collection of land use fees would be strengthened.

Editor: Donald