China Alleviates Burden on Enterprises, SocietyChina has alleviated the burden on enterprises and society by standardizing fee-charging and removing irrational fee-collection, creating a sound environment for the economic development during the Ninth Five-Year Plan (1996-2000).The central government has canceled 69 kinds of fees charged by different levels of government, 442 funds and 238 kinds of fees collected in the production, registration and use of vehicles, as well as 319 other fee-charging projects. Meanwhile it has also lowered the charging standard for 517 kinds of fees, cutting down the extra burden of enterprises and society by 72.22 billion yuan since 1996, according to sources from the State Development Planning Commission (SDPC). The per-kilowatt electricity price has dropped 0.1 yuan in China's rural areas in recent years, and farmers could save 23 billion yuan annually in total, greatly stimulating the demand of rural consumption and the development of township enterprises. The country has also lowered the land-use fees for railway construction and streamlined medicine prices since 1996. The SDPC authorities noted that China has made great efforts to maintain a fair and orderly price competition environment. From 1996 to 1999, the country cracked down on 2.33 million price cases, captured 18.23 billion yuan in illegal fees and imposed sanctions totaling 10.45 billion yuan. |
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