SHENZHEN, May 24 (Xinhua) -- The Shenzhen taxation authority has established a lab with tech conglomerate Tencent to use blockchain technology to fight malpractice and forgery.

The Shenzhen Municipal Office of the State Administration of Taxation made the announcement on Thursday.

Blockchain is a digital ledger system that uses sophisticated cryptographic techniques to create a permanent, unchangeable and transparent record of exchanges to trace each transaction.

Li Wei, deputy director of the office, said the power of blockchain technology will help tax supervisors to trace the source of an invoice and determine its authenticity. It will curb malpractice and document forgery in taxation, cut costs, simplify procedure and ensure the security of data, he said.