China's new round of structural tax cuts is likely to benefit more than 900,000 enterprises nationwide, according to a working conference held in Nanjing on November 26 to discuss the country's pilot project of replacing the business tax with a value-added tax.

About 710,000 enterprises have been covered by the tax-cutting program, and another 200,000 will be included starting from December 1 this year, according to the meeting jointly held by the Ministry of Finance and the State Administration of Taxation.

Shanghai piloted the program on January 1 in an effort to decrease the overall tax burden for businesses and boost the transportation and service sectors. The program was then expanded to some provincial-level regions including Guangdong, Zhejiang and Beijing.

Tianjin and Hubei join the program in December.

The reform has effectively promoted the growth of the service sector and encouraged the development of small and micro-sized enterprises, said attendees at the meeting.

In Shanghai, the tax cut has helped reduce tax burdens by 22.5 billion yuan ($3.57 billion) in the first 10 months, while in Beijing, the new measure has cut tax revenue by 2.5 billion yuan ($402 million) in two months.

At the meeting, Vice Finance Minister Wang Jun said more work is needed to ensure full success of the pilot programs.