Move aims to boost innovation and invigorate real economy

Fujian province has beefed up efforts to cut excessive taxes and charges on local companies, as part of the country's broader goal of lightening corporate burdens to boost innovation and invigorate economic development.

Statistics from Fujian Provincial Price Bureau showed that the bureau has helped local companies to reduce costs, with the total reduction exceeding 27 billion yuan ($4.3 billion) since January 2017.

The move came as China has accelerated steps to lower corporate costs and has launched a series of measures to cut some excessive taxes and charges in the past few years.

"We have scrambled to lighten corporate burdens by cutting their operating, electricity and gas costs, with some reduction amounts higher than the average level across the nation," said Liu Jiacheng, deputy director of Fujian Provincial Price Bureau.

Liu said that the bureau has also canceled 40 chargeable items on administrative fees and has lowered fees of 17 chargeable items, which is expected to result in decreased costs of more than 1 billion yuan per year.

"In addition, we also established five supervision systems to prevent illegal charges and ensure that these policies indeed work out effectively," Liu added.

Fujian province, nestled in the southeast coast of China, has long been known for its open economy. Its imports and exports, which act as one of the pillars of its economic growth, were valued at 1.16 trillion yuan last year, a 12 percent increase year-on-year.

Fujian Rongchang Chemical Industry Co Ltd, a local tech leader in the chlor-alkali industry, has exported its products to an array of countries and regions including Japan, South Korea and India.

"We are a high energy-consuming enterprise and we consume a total of 160 million kilowatt hours of electricity on average each year. In the past year, local authorities have reduced several times the electricity price, which greatly reduced our operating costs," said Zhou Youfu, general manager of Rongchang.

These policies have helped the company to reduce electricity costs by 8.03 million yuan, which made up 13 percent of the company's total profit, Zhou said.

It's the same good situation for Fujian Tianchen Yaolong New Material Co Ltd, as the company has cut its electricity costs by more than 5 million yuan each year.

Tian Yanpu, the company's deputy general manager, said the costs it saved will be used for the research and development of new products and technologies, and the improvement of techniques, as well as upgrading equipment dedicated to safety and environmental protection.