An official survey indicates China's policies to phase out agricultural tax to reduce farmers' financial burden has been implemented as expected.

According to the results of a survey conducted in 12 provincial areas, the tax overhaul has reduced the financial burdens on its 800 million farmers, while other reforms planned in response to the reduced local fiscal revenues due to the tax overhaul has also been going on smoothly.

The survey, which was conducted by the Rural Tax-Fee Reform Taskforce of the State Council involves 440 farmers and rural primary and middle schools, 90 villages in 48 townships in 24 counties.

The 12 provincial areas reported 13.5 billion yuan (1.66 billion US dollars) in reduced fiscal agricultural tax due to the tax exemption or reduction, the taskforce said in a statement released Saturday by the Ministry of Finance.

All of the 440 rural families surveyed said they were familiar with the latest tax reform policies and grain growers received grain subsidies offered by the central government.

But 70 percent of the farmers surveyed complained about excessive rise of the prices of agricultural production materials, such as chemical fertilizers, which offset partly the benefits of the tax overhaul.

China's top legislature Thursday adopted a motion to rescinded the country's 2,600-year-old agricultural tax as of Jan. 1, 2006.

Agricultural tax, China's most ancient tax category, started to be collected in 594 BC. From that time, agricultural tax has existed for 2,600 years in China with dominant rural economy.

During the more than 2,000 years, agricultural tax was always the main source of the country's coffer. Since the founding of the People's Republic of China in 1949, agriculture has made great contribution to the country's economic development.