Mechanism for fairer company fees sought

Lujiazui, Shanghai's financial center, forms a perfect backdrop to Shanghai's Bund. (Wang Gang/For China Daily)

China is taking steps to establish a well-functioning and sustainable regulatory mechanism for enterprise-related fees aimed at anchoring expectations of market players of all types and boosting their confidence in future growth, the State Council, the country's Cabinet, said on Friday.

Strengthening the regulation of enterprise-related fees has been identified as a crucial measure to lower operating costs for businesses and optimize China's overall business environment, according to a State Council executive meeting chaired by Premier Li Qiang.

Weeks earlier, the country vowed in the Government Work Report to launch special initiatives "to regulate enterprise-related law enforcement, with a focus on tackling arbitrary charges, fines, inspections and seizures", and "take resolute steps to prevent unauthorized cross-jurisdictional and profit-driven law enforcement".

It was highlighted at the Friday meeting that the focus of the regulatory efforts will span across various stakeholders, including government agencies and their affiliated entities, intermediary service providers, industry associations and chambers of commerce, among others.

A complete catalog of all fee collection items, according to the meeting, will be put in place and made publicly available to society at large.

This initiative will clearly define service content, service standards and fee amounts for each item included in the catalog. Furthermore, any fee collection outside of the established catalog will be strictly prohibited, it was decided.

Departments concerned are also required to launch a thorough review and cleanup of existing enterprise-related fee policies to ensure they are in line with relevant laws and regulations.

The government will take decisive action to cancel any enterprise fee collection items that lack legal or policy-based justification, or have been established without proper authority. Additionally, the authorities will firmly correct any arbitrary increases in fee collection standards or expansions of the fee scope, the meeting said.

For any new enterprise-related fee policies that are deemed necessary, policymakers will intensify the review process to ensure their legality, fairness and impact on business expectations, according to the meeting.