To reduce the burden on the real economy, enterprise-related charges will continue to be "reduced"

CCTV News, Beijing, February 9 (Reporter Li Shuo) According to the Economic Voice's "CMG Financial Review", recently, the words of Zong Qinghou, chairman of Wahaha Group, have been hotly debated. In an interview, Zong Qinghou mentioned that enterprises have a heavy burden of fees, and there are more than 500 types of fees that enterprises have to pay every year. Although the National Development and Reform Commission and the Ministry of Finance later clarified this, saying that Wahaha Group finally paid only 212 fees and not as many as 500, it is an indisputable fact that at a time when the pressure of economic downturn is still there, there are more and heavier fees related to enterprises.

At the State Council executive meeting held yesterday, Premier Li Keqiang emphasized that vigorous efforts to clean up and standardize enterprise-related charges and deepening administrative streamlining and decentralization should be placed in an equally important position, so as to reduce the institutional transaction costs of enterprises from the source. The departments of the State Council should take the lead in regulating "fees" and effectively play the role of "the top leads the way".

Since 2013, the central level has uniformly canceled, suspended, or reduced 496 enterprise-related government funds and administrative fees, and local governments have canceled more than 600 fees. Since 2015, a series of measures have been introduced to reduce enterprise-related business service charges and corporate social security expenses. However, it must be noted that there are still many charging items and problems such as arbitrary charging are still prominent, which has increased the burden on enterprises.

To this end, yesterday's meeting emphasized that a number of institutional, long-term, and effective fee-clearance measures must be launched as soon as possible, auditing and supervision should be intensified, unreasonable fees charged by public institutions must be resolutely eliminated, and intermediaries must be prevented from using the government to influence illegal fees. Industry associations and chambers of commerce must not force enterprises to join or charge illegal fees. It is necessary to establish a fee catalog system as soon as possible to effectively reduce the discretionary power of enterprises to charge fees.

On this topic, Economic Voices conducted an exclusive interview with Zhang Lianqi, an accounting and auditing expert and senior researcher at the China and Globalization Think Tank.

Economic Voice: We say that there are still many charging items and problems such as arbitrary charging are still prominent. What are the main aspects of this?

Zhang Lianqi: "In recent years, tax cuts and fee reductions are not only an important measure to revitalize the real economy, but also an important measure to deepen administrative streamlining and decentralization, promote the reform of decentralization, regulation and services, and promote supply-side structural reform. At present, if we want to optimize the development environment of the real economy, to a large extent, we actually need to reduce taxes and fees, especially fee reductions.

Since last year, some entrepreneurs and scholars have put forward many opinions on enterprise-related charges. Enterprises are now like ‘carrying a burden up a mountain’ or ‘walking with straw on your back on a rainy day’ – the heavier you carry it, the heavier it becomes. We have seen that a lot of efforts have been made in various aspects in recent years. Since 2013, the central level has canceled, suspended, or reduced 496 enterprise-related government funds and administrative fees, and more than 600 local fees have been cancelled. However, variousThe problem of arbitrary fees for projects is still very prominent. It mainly includes several aspects: the first is administrative fees; the second is government funds at the central level; and the third is red-top intermediaries or power intermediaries.

It can be said that these expenses have caused a heavy burden on enterprises. Disability funds, greening fees, and water conservancy funds are all set up by various central departments. The main reason is that our country's enterprises are originally state-owned enterprises. When taxes cannot guarantee some public projects or public services, we charge fees in the form of fees, which is a "quasi-tax" method. This puts an additional burden on enterprises. ”

Economic Voice: From the current perspective, why is it so urgent to vigorously clean up and standardize enterprise-related charges?

Zhang Lianqi: “There is a ‘Laffer Curve’ internationally. Under normal circumstances, raising tax rates can increase government tax revenue. However, when the tax rate increases beyond a certain limit, the operating costs of enterprises will increase, investment will decrease, and income will decrease, resulting in a reduction in the tax base and a reduction in the government's tax revenue. When the tax burden reaches a certain level, tax reduction can actually bring tax sources. Therefore, we need to let enterprises cultivate fish, consolidate their roots and cultivate their talents, and increase their endogenous power. Otherwise, the enterprise is already at the critical point of profit and loss. Once the expenses increase, it will be more difficult for it to survive.