China, the world's biggest wheat producer and consumer, may impose a value-added tax on wheat imports next year after stockpiles of the grain increased, according to a government report.

　　China had introduced a waiver on the tax at the start of this year to boost stockpiles, said the China National Grain & Oils Information Center, a state grain administration body.

　　The end of the tax waiver may contribute to a drop in imports next year and help extend a decline in wheat prices that have slumped 17 percent in Chicago since January 1. China's wheat imports jumped over 16-fold in the first nine months of this year to 4.97 million metric tons compared with a year earlier.

　　China signed contracts to buy about 10 million tons of wheat from the United States, France, Canada and Australia so far this year, China National Grain said last week. Delivery will take place mainly in the marketing year ending on May 31, 2005.

　　Farmers in China may boost harvest by 2.7 percent to 88.4 million tons of wheat from the current winter crop.

　　(Bloomberg News)