SHANGHAI, Dec 6: China will lift its import tax on uncut diamonds imported by the customs of Shanghai Diamond Exchange from January next year, the Liberation Daily reported on Thursday.

At the same time, the government will temporarily lift the consumption tax on imported diamonds from next year and collect a five-per cent tax on diamond retail sales instead, the Wen Hui Daily said in a separate report.

Current import duties are: three per cent for raw diamonds, non-refined or simply-refined diamonds for industrial use including natural or synthetic diamond power; six per cent for synthetic or reproduced diamond for industrial use; and eight percent for synthetic or diamonds reproduced for other uses.

Current consumption tax is 10 per cent.

The tax adjustments do not include diamond jewellery, the reports said.

BANKS: China’s public health ministry has issued licences for two commercial sperm banks to operate from domestic hospitals, it was reported on Thursday.

The banks are licenced to sell sperm to other medical institutions, the Shanghai Morning Post reported.

Other sperm banks in the country are waiting for similar licences, but can in the meantime offer infertility treatment to couples on site.

China in August started reviewing the qualifications of existing sperm banks after concerns about hygiene and AIDS infections.

The concerns arose after claims that drug addicts were selling sperm to make cash and that not all of the nation’s sperm banks were properly regulated.

China hopes to regulate the system so that eventually there is one officially licensed sperm bank in each province, a doctor at Shanghai’s Renji said.

The commercial sperm banks are affiliated to hospitals in the Sichuan and Jiangsu provinces. —AFP