China will bring more legitimacy and fairness to its taxation system in a bid to ensure the nation's economic health, Finance Minister Lou Jiwei said on Thursday.

Expanding pilot reform to replace the business tax with a value-added tax, in order to avoid duplicate taxation and to encourage industrial upgrading, will remain a major task this year, Lou told reporters on the sidelines of the annual session of the National People's Congress in Beijing.

The trial, which started with transport and the service sectors, grew to include railway, post and telecom services in January, according to the Government Work Report delivered by Premier Li Keqiang on Wednesday.