Over the last ten years, the average personal donation made by
Chinese has been only 1.7 yuan (US$0.21), the China Youth
Daily quoted a source with the Children's Foundation of China
as saying on Monday.
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"There is much room for improvement for the charity cause in China
and the government should institute tax incentives to encourage
giving," according to Tian Di, director of the managing committee
of the Foundation's minors' ideological and moral education
branch.
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No more than 100,000 Chinese companies, a mere one percent of the
country's 10 million registered firms, donate to charity, according
to the National Development and Reform Commission.
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"Given the low ratio of tax exemption, enterprises in China lack
the economic incentive to donate," said Xu Yongguang, vice-chairman
of China Charity Federation, at the China Charity Conference held
last November in Beijing, when the Chinese government promised to
provide a convenient and standardized service in donation-related
tax reduction and exemption.
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"China needs to create a credible, transparent and self-disciplined
charity system with independent third-party evaluation which
receives supervision from government, media and society," Tian
said. "People can be confident about where their donation goes if
the charity organization is credible."
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It is estimated that by the end of 2004, about 5 billion yuan
(US$617 million) had been donated to China's charitable
organizations, accounting for 0.05 percent of the gross domestic
product. In comparison, it was 2.17 percent in the US.
(Xinhua News Agency February 8, 2006)