China has started the legislation procedure of value added tax (VAT) and expects to complete it by the end of 2020, a senior official with Ministry of Finance said on Monday.

The country's reform program to replace the business tax with a VAT has been carried under interim regulations theses years.

Yuan Haiyao, deputy head of Department of Tax and Policy under the ministry, said the ministry would simplify, reduce the number of VAT rates, and clear up some preferential policies that may not be applicable in the future.

Yuan said the ministry is studying problems found since the nationwide reform was rolled out in May.

His comments come after vice-finance minister, Shi Yaobin, said on Friday at a news briefing that China would continue to simplify the rates after the smooth rolling out of the process in which more than 10 million taxpayers are involved.

Shi said the tax cut in the business sector helped ease the downward economic pressure.

Official data showed that a total of 96.5 billion yuan ($14 billion) had been saved by the end of October.

A total of 500 billion yuan is expected to be saved by the year-end, taking into account other forms of tax reductions, added Shi.