Another 10 provinces and regions are likely to benefit from a tax reform program to replace the business tax with the value-added tax, which aims to avoid duplicated levies, the Finance ministry said on Monday.

This will be the latest expansion of the program, which kicked off in Jan 1 in Shanghai, and was later extended to other provinces and cities.

Hebei, Henan, Shandong, Jiangxi, Hunan, Sichuan, Shaanxi, Qinghai and Xinjiang, together with the city of Qingdao, have submitted their applications to join the program this year, according to the Finance Ministry.

The program is expected to be expanded nationwide during the 12th Five-Year Plan (2011-15) period, and will help reduce several hundreds of billion yuan in taxes.

In 2012, the tax reform program helped to cut 42.6 billion yuan in taxes for companies in the pilot areas, according to the ministry.

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