BEIJING, Nov. 16 (Xinhua) -- China's tax refunds, as well as tax and fee cuts and deferrals, topped 3.7 trillion yuan (about 525.8 billion U.S. dollars) this year as of Nov. 10, as the country continued efforts to ease enterprises' burden, official data showed Wednesday.

Among the total, value-added tax credit refunds reached nearly 2.31 trillion yuan, more than 3.5 times the annual amount of last year, Wang Daoshu, deputy head of the State Taxation Administration, told a press conference.

Preferential tax and fee reduction policies saved taxpayers 789.6 billion yuan in this period, while deferred payment of tax and fees came in at 679.7 billion yuan, according to Wang.

The policy package has effectively eased tax and fee burdens on enterprises and facilitated economic recovery. For the 100,000 key enterprises monitored by taxation authorities, their tax and fee payment per 100 yuan of operating revenue dropped 5.3 percent, Wang said, noting that the reduction for equipment manufacturers was 9.6 percent.

With tax and fee policies paying off, sales revenue of Chinese enterprises has grown 3.4 percent year on year since the third quarter, accelerating from 1.1 percent in the second quarter.

From the beginning of this year to Nov. 10, enterprises' spending on equipment purchase rose 4.9 percent year on year, 1 percentage point higher than the increase in the first half of this year, Wang said.