Premier Li Keqiang presided over the executive meeting of the State Council on April 8 and decided to carry out a special program in the following six months to trim and standardize enterprise-related charges across China. This is another important measure taken by the State Council to further activate the market viability, significantly clear up obstacles and reduce burdens of enterprises, and boost business startup, entrepreneurship and innovation to enhance the economic development momentum.

 

The executive meeting put forward that the special program will focus on trimming the enterprise-related administrative and institutional charges and governmental funds, mainly involving compulsive monopolistic service charges for the administrative pre-approval, market supervision and market access, enterprise-related fees of industrial associations and chambers of commerce, by means of streamlining administration and delegating power to the lower level, combining decentralization and control, and transforming the governmental functions and establishing standards and mechanism. Efforts should be made to remove the root cause of arbitrary charges with a legislative, standard and transparent management system.

 

In order to lower the costs of enterprises, stabilize the market expectation, boost the economic growth and adjust the industrial structure properly, the executive meeting decided to properly lower the power grid purchase price of the coal-fired power generation plants and the price of industrial and commercial electricity consumption. First, lower the grid purchase price of electricity generated with the coal-fired power generation by about RMB0.02/kwh on average in line with the coal-electricity price linkage mechanism. Second, lower the price of the industrial and commercial electricity consumption by RMB0.018/kwh on average. Third, lower the taxation rate of iron ore resource tax by law to 40% of the designated taxation rate.

 

Source: Xinhua News Agency, April 9, 2015