The State Council said Wednesday that railway transport and postal services will be included in the trial of value-added tax (VAT) reform from January 1 next year.

The policy, which was implemented as part of China's structural tax cuts, is in line with remarks made in April this year by Premier Li Keqiang who said that the reform program to replace the business tax with a VAT will be expanded nationwide in pilot sectors.

China's widening VAT reform has resulted in a tax reduction of 93.97 billion yuan ($15.31 billion) for businesses in the first 10 months of the year, the State Administration of Taxation announced last month.