China Telecom Corporation (00728): Adjustment of scope of value-added tax applicable to telecommunications services.

China Telecom Corporation (00728) announced that the Ministry of Finance and the State Administration of Taxation of the People's Republic of China recently issued the "Announcement on Specific Matters Concerning the Scope of Value-added Taxation" (Announcement No. 9 of 2026 of the Ministry of Finance and the State Administration of Taxation), which stipulates that starting from January 1, 2026, within the territory of the People's Republic of China, the business activities of providing mobile data services, SMS and MMS services, and Internet broadband access services using fixed networks, mobile networks, satellites, and the Internet will be classified as basic telecommunications services instead of value-added telecommunications services, and the corresponding value-added tax rate will be adjusted from 6% to 9%. This adjustment in the scope of application of value-added tax will have an impact on the company's revenue and profits. The company will fully implement the strategy of cloud transformation, digitalization and intelligence, accelerate the construction of technology-based enterprises, comprehensively promote AI+ initiatives, continuously create integrated intelligent cloud services encompassing "computing power + platform + data + model + application," accelerate the cultivation of new driving forces, promote quality improvement, cost reduction, efficiency enhancement, and continue to advance high-quality development of the company.