Policy Digest

More support to ease burden on elderly, child care providers

The National Development and Reform Commission and 12 other departments have jointly issued a package of measures to solve difficulties faced by the country's elderly care and child care services, according to a notice published on Aug 29.

The measures include rent concessions, tax breaks and financial support.

The notice said that due to factors including the COVID-19 pandemic, elderly care and child care services face many difficulties. Since organizations that provide such services are often medium, small and micro-sized enterprises and individual businesses, those who lease State-owned properties will be exempt from paying rent until the year's end.

The landlords of non-State-owned property have been encouraged to share losses with these organizations on the basis of equal consultation, it said.

In terms of tax breaks, the notice specified that elderly care and child care service organizations all over the country will benefit from cuts of up to 50 percent in six local taxes such as resources taxes and real-estate taxes, and two fees, including the education surcharge.

Local authorities have also been encouraged to provide electricity, water, gas and heating to related organizations at lower rates or free of charge this year.

Additional subsidies to allow farmers to ensure food supply

China has pledged to provide grain farmers with subsidies totaling 10 billion yuan ($1.44 billion) from its central government budget to ease the impact of the rising prices of farm supplies and to boost farmers' incentive to keep producing food.

This year, the central government has already allocated 40 billion yuan in subsidies to grain farmers in three outlays, according to the Ministry of Finance.

The latest batch of one-off subsidies will be allocated to grain producers, including individual farmers, family farms, farming cooperatives, agricultural enterprises and related entities that are all bearing the brunt of the rising costs of agricultural materials, the ministry said.

Local governments should make good use of modern information technology to ensure that grain producers are granted the full subsidies for which they are eligible in a timely manner, the ministry added.

Plan further bolsters country's efforts to meet carbon goals

The Ministry of Industry and Information Technology and four other departments have released a plan to accelerate the country's green and low-carbon development of electrical equipment. The plan is part of the efforts for China to meet its carbon peak and carbon neutrality goals.

Efforts will be made to boost the green transition of power generation equipment and to cultivate a group of quality brands and support enterprises as they invest and set up production and sales centers abroad in order for their upstream and downstream products to go global, according to a notice issued on Aug 29.

Within five to eight years, a marked improvement is expected in the demand and supply structure of China's electrical equipment, and the efficiency of its power grid will be significantly enhanced, it said.

By then, wind and solar power equipment will meet an installed demand of over 1.2 billion kilowatts and nuclear power equipment will reach an installed demand of 70 million kilowatts, according to the plan.