China's fiscal revenue was 2.28 trillion yuan (325.7 billion U.S. dollars) in the first four months of 2008, up 29.4 percent year-on-year.

April revenue jumped 17 percent year-on-year to 682.5 billion yuan, Friday's China Securities Journal reported, citing unidentified sources.

The growth rate in April was down 7.7 percentage points from March as weaker profits cut corporate income tax payments, according to the newspaper.

It said corporate income tax revenue, which accounted for 17.1 percent of 2007 fiscal revenue, was down 11.9 percent year-on-year in April and 11.7 percent from the previous month.

Fiscal revenues have grown this year, but the rate has been generally slowing. The growth rates were 42.4 percent, 36.6 percent and 24.7 percent respectively in January, February and March.

The newspaper said that analysts believed the growth slowdown would persist all through 2008.

Fiscal revenue increased 32.4 percent to 5.13 trillion yuan in 2007.

(Shanghai Daily June 6, 2008)