Chongqing's policies to stabilize economic growth

Southwest China's Chongqing municipality released policies on further promoting the healthy development of market entities on July 27, focusing on tax and fee reductions, cost reductions, financial support, employment and entrepreneurship, the expansion of domestic demands, and the stabilization of supply chains.

It is estimated that the policies will help scrap more than 30 billion yuan ($4.28 billion) of taxes and fees, including reducing the collection rate for small scale value added taxpayers, exemptions of value added tax in some industries, deferring income tax payments for small and micro businesses, deferring social insurance payments for companies, and tax exemptions for donations for companies and private businesses.

The policies will also reduce over 11 billion yuan of operation costs by rent reduction or exemption, and by reducing water and electricity costs in stages.

To enhance financial support for companies, the policies will delay repayment of capital and interest, increase credit for small and micro companies, provide re-lending for businesses in emergencies, reduce loan interest rates, provide subsidized interest for companies in difficulty, and reduce or exempt guarantee fee.

To boost employment, the policies include four articles which will stabilize over 700,000 job positions and issue 1.5 billion yuan of subsidies.

The policies aim to stimulate consumption by supporting the culture and tourism industries, automobile sales, green consumption and the night-time economy.

In addition, the policies include four policies involving strengthening the service guarantee for production, stabilizing processing trade, relieving financial problems for foreign trade companies, and converting exports to domestic sales to ensure the stability of industrial and supply chains.