China Axes 47 Fees on Real Estate DevelopmentChina announced Tuesday to cancel 47 items of administrative fees on real estate development in a bid to help cut down costs of property developers and investors.Governments at various levels have begun to rectify the housing fee-collecting system, and those items that are illegal or similar to the 47 items will all be called off, according to a circular jointly issued by the State Development Planning Commission and the Ministry of Finance. Meanwhile, some six other fees will be lowered to 70 percent from the current levels. The circular also demands local governments standardize pricing in monopolized housing-related fields such as the supply of power, tap water and gas, as well as telecommunications and cable or optical fiber television services. The ministries said that the central government will not approve any new administrative fees on housing development, except those levied in line with laws and regulations, and will not raise the level of the existing fees in the near future. |
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