Six enterprises, including the Ritz-Carlton hotel in Beijing, each received penalties of 2 million yuan ($300,652) for raising prices under the pretext of covering extra taxes. The attempted deceit came after China launched a reform to replace business tax with value-added tax, the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) said on its website on July 29.

The six enterprises, mostly hotels and real estate companies, will be fined a total of 12 million yuan. According to the NDRC, the companies used the tax reform to impose additional charges on their services. What they did disrupted the market order and undermined the interests and rights of their customers.

Authorities added that, although these companies have the right to fix their own prices for real estate lease deals, property management and hotel rooms, such adjustments must still conform to related laws and regulations. No one is allowed to fabricate or spread information about price hikes, the commission said, suggesting that operators simply obey the laws to avoid such problems in the future.