Financial services firms hope the Chinese tax authorities will announce soon more detailed rules on the new value-added tax or VAT system to clear the confusion over its impact on their tax burden.

Some said VAT will increase their outgo while others said it could decrease.

Matthew Wong, PwC China's financial services tax leader, said: "We talked to a number of bankers and they cannot see how this reform can help banks reduce tax because the rate is higher and the amount of input VAT they can credit is difficult to be estimated.