BEIJING -- Lawmakers on Saturday started deliberating a draft law on stamp duty tax, which will keep the current taxation framework and tax levels generally unchanged.

The draft was submitted to the ongoing 26th session of the Standing Committee of the 13th National People's Congress for the reading.

At the session, Minister of Finance Liu Kun said that it would bring the current provisional regulations on stamp duty and those involved in securities trading into legal norms.

Besides appropriate simplification of tax items and tax cuts, the draft law has canceled stamp duty on, for instance, licenses.

The bill also stipulates that the current preferential stamp duty policy will remain unchanged and that certain favorable terms would be written into law.