China's taxation institutions collected 148.4 billion yuan (18.55 billion US dollars) in social insurance premiums in the first half year, up 22.69 percent from last year.

The high growth was built on last year's year-on-year growth of 25.36 percent.

China collected 108.2 billion yuan of basic pension insurance in the first six months, up 21.6 percent year on year, unemployment insurance, 8.3 billion yuan, basic medical insurance, 29.1 billion yuan, employment injury insurance, 1.9 billion yuan, and birth insurance, 900 million yuan.

Guangdong Province collected the most social insurance premiums, totaling 32.1 billion yuan in the first seven months with a year-on-year growth of 23.7 percent.

East China's Zhejiang Province collected 23.9 billion yuan from January to July, up 27.6 percent from a year ago.

China has established a basic social insurance system. According to estimates from the Ministry of Labor and Social Security, 185 million people have had basic pension insurance this year, 107 million have had unemployment insurance, 150 million have had basic medical insurance, 90 million have had employment injury insurance and 53 million for birth insurance.

In the past five years, social insurance premiums collected around the country have risen from 94.5 billion yuan in 2001 to 262.3 billion yuan in 2005.

Source:佚名