Helping small businesses

THE NATIONAL DEVELOPMENT AND REFORM Commission and the Ministry of Finance jointly issued a notice on Nov 17 that small enterprises will be exempted 13 administrative charges from Jan 1, 2012 to Dec 31, 2014.

The central authority has continuously reduced the tax burden on small enterprises since 2008. More than 100 administrative charges were called off in 2008, 31 early this year and 13 now, though temporarily. But there are still about 130 kinds of charges left now for enterprises, according to the administrative charge catalogue issued by the Ministry of Finance this year.

The administrative charges are priced and collected by the authorities to cover the administration costs. However, this system dates back to the planned economy era when government's fiscal revenue was much lower than that today.