July 9, 2013
Translated by Tian Shaohui and Pang Lei

Top stories in Tuesday's papers included coverage of the suspended death sentence handed to China's former railways minister on corruption charges and updates on the investigation into the plane crash in San Francisco that killed two Chinese teenagers.

Major websites have also been giving prominent coverage to a bridge collapse in Sichuan that occured at around noon today. Flood waters washed cars and pedestrians into the river and casualty numbers are still unclear.

Keep readiing below for a translated digests of some of the other stories being reported by mainland Chinese media outlets today.

Report: Fiscal Transparency of Mainland Cities Substandard
National Business Daily
Fiscal transparency of city governments in China is very low, according to research conducted by Tsinghua University's School of Public Administration (清華大學公共管理學院) into 289 cities across the country. Even Shanghai, which topped the list in terms of being the most transparent city surveyed, only achieved a score of 178 out of a possible total of 400 points. Basic details about the fiscal data of all these cities have not been disclosed and details of local debt are not published in nearly all of the cities.
Original article: [Chinese]

95 Chinese Companies Makes Fortune Global 500 List
Fortune China
Ninety five Chinese companies were included in this year\'s list of the world\'s largest 500 companies as measured by annual revenue which is collated by Fortune Magazine. China's two state-owned energy giants Sinopec and CNPC ranked fourth and the fifth in the list behind Royal Dutch Shell, Wal-mart and Exxon Mobil.
Original article: [Chinese]

Central Bank Continues Freeze on Bill Issuing
Shanghai Securities News
China's Central Bank has once again chosen not to issue any new treasury bills this week, the third week in a row that it has refrained from engaging in open market operations, despite market expectations that bills will start being issued again soon.  The People's Bank of China (PBOC) has not used open market operations to drain or inject liquidity into the system since June 20.
Original article: [Chinese]

Business Tax Change to Value-Added Tax
Xinhua News Agency
A major tax reform that replaces corporate income tax (營業稅) or turnover tax  with value-added tax (VAT) (營業稅改征增值稅) will be piloted nationally as of Aug 1, according to a joint statement from the Ministry of Finance, China's Central Bank and the State Administration of Taxation. Over the period of pilot program, the revenue collected will continue to go into local government coffers but there is ongoing debate over which level of government will receive the VAT revenue once the pilot-stage of the tax reform is completed. For more background on the tax reform, see this EO article.
Original article: [Chinese]

Public Feedback Sought on New Fuel Standards - Come Into Effect in 2018
Beijing News
A draft of the new "National Standard V" has been released for public comment. The new standards are referred to as "National Standard V," as they represent the fifth generation of fuel standards that apply to passenger cars be introduced nationwide in China. The new standard will limit the amount of sulfur in regular gasoline to 10 parts per million (ppm), down from the current maximum of 50 ppm. Similar to the changes that occured when Beijing introduced stricter fuel standards in May 2012, the octane ratings of fuel sold at most gas stations around the country will also be lowered from the current No. 90, No. 93 and No. 97 to No. 89, No. 92 and No. 95. Those interested in commenting on the new standards have until July 22. A final draft of the new fuel standards will be officially released this year in order to give refiners and car manufacturers time to upgrade their products before the new standard comes into effect on Jan 1, 2018. For more background on upgrading Chinese fuel standards read this earlier brief.
Original article: [Chinese]