China to Cut Fees, Fines For Rural BusinessThe Ministry of Agriculture, trying to relieve financial burdens on township enterprises, pledged Monday to eliminate unreasonable charges that hold back the rural economy.The State Development Planning Commission and the Ministry of Finance will list unwarranted fees charged to township firms, and the Ministry of Agriculture will ensure that these items are canceled this year, said Lu Yongjun, vice director of the ministry's Township Management Bureau, as saying. Fines, arbitrary quotas and other charges to companies that operate in China's rural areas have cut their profits by an average 20 percent, Lu said. China's 20 million township-run firms employed 125 million workers, mostly rural residents, and generated a combined added- value of 2,500 billion yuan(301 billion U.S. dollars) in 1999. More money would have been earned and spent had the businesses been spared multiple illegal charges, which Lu's bureau estimates exceeded 110 billion yuan in 1999. Lu said local governments hamper business with arbitrary or redundant charges including insurance premiums, hospital construction fees and forced quotas. "We should realize that township industry has become a major contributor to the country's economic growth." One-third of farmers' annual income and China's gross domestic product(GDP) come from township enterprises, which may employ people who live on farms, he noted. |
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