BEIJING -- Privately owned enterprises in Zhejiang province have been injected with vitality as the government has adopted policies to reduce their burden in recent years.
Hangzhou Wahaha Group, the largest beverage producer in China, has largely benefitted from the government's policies to reduce tax and service fees, said Zong Qinghou, the group's founder and chairman.
As Wahaha has calculated, the total fees it paid in Zhejiang in 2017 significantly dropped by 64 percent from a year earlier to 13 million yuan (2.1 million U.S. dollars). The items of these fees were also reduced to 152 from 172 in 2016.
The group has also seen its costs largely reduced by the favorable electricity price offered by the Zhejiang government in recent years. With the policy, Wahaha saved 4.9 million yuan of electricity costs in 2016 and the figure reached 5.3 million yuan last year, said Zong.
"The government's effort to reduce companies' burden has also been shown by its improved efficiency," said Zong.
"While we had to finish some of the business procedures in city government departments in the past, we can do it at the district level now. If some required documents have not been submit-ted in time, the government can still handle the case as long as we submit them later. Some of the procedures can even be completed on the smartphone application now," he said.
According to Zong, Zhejiang, which has a large number of privately owned enterprises, has been dedicated to building it into the lowest-cost province nationwide, in order to provide a better commercial environment for companies.
"The company now can carry on all its strategic development plans with much confidence," he said.
Ningbo Heng Sheng Logistics Co Ltd was listed on the National Equities Exchange and Quotations in May 2016. As the company's Deputy General Manager Chen Kai explained, petrol and highway tolls make up the majority－60 percent－of the company's costs.
As Zhejiang lowered the toll fees for international standard container vehicles in March last year, the company has seen the cost for such vehicles reduced by 10 percent year-on-year, which is quite important for a public company.
"This is also good news for companies which purchase delivery services from us," he said. "We will lower the charge by 8 percent after the new policy. In this sense, companies throughout the value chain will all benefit from the policy."
Since 2013, Zhejiang has abolished, suspended, exempted or integrated a total of 134 kinds of administrative business charges. An additional 25 such charges have been lowered. As a result, the local government has reduced a total of 48 billion yuan worth of charges from companies.
"Zhejiang is not abundant in natural resources and faces a number of challenges such as the rising labor cost and land prices," said Han Yaming, deputy director of Zhejiang Provincial Price Bureau. "We have made all efforts to release the burden from companies so that they can be better motivated and seek the room for development." (Source: China Daily)
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