Preliminary estimates suggest nearly one trillion yuan of funds for construction enterprises will be revitalized
Premier Li Keqiang chaired a State Council executive meeting on June 15, deciding to annul a batch of policy documents that are inconsistent with current laws and regulations, detrimental to business startups, and unadapted to economic and social development needs; and to deploy the cleanup and standardization of deposits in the engineering construction sector to reduce enterprise costs and create a fair competitive environment.
The meeting pointed out that comprehensively cleaning up policy documents inconsistent with current laws and regulations and detrimental to reform and development is an important measure to continuously advance the reform of streamlining administration, delegating powers, combining delegation with regulation, and optimizing services, and to build a law-based government. It is of great significance for giving greater play to market mechanisms, fostering an environment conducive to implementing the innovation-driven development strategy, promoting mass entrepreneurship and innovation, and facilitating the growth of the new economy and new drivers.
Another 506 State Council documents announced invalid and ceased to be implemented
The meeting decided that, on the basis of the 489 State Council documents previously announced invalid, after strict review, another 506 State Council documents will be announced invalid and cease to be implemented. Specifically, these include:
First, those inconsistent with current laws and regulations or without legal or regulatory basis;
Second, those unadapted to the needs of economic development and severely constraining enterprise production, operation, and management activities;
Third, those where the approval matters established have been cancelled or delegated, or where different documents impose duplicate requirements or inconsistent provisions on the same matter.
The meeting required that policy continuity be ensured, interim and ex-post supervision be improved, and that no "gaps" occur. All regions and departments should, in accordance with the above spirit, promptly clean up and abolish policy documents that are inconsistent with current laws and regulations or without legal or regulatory basis, and detrimental to stabilizing growth, promoting reform, adjusting structure, and benefiting people's livelihood.
The meeting also decided to optimize lightning protection project permits to solve problems such as overlapping departmental responsibilities, duplicate permits, and high intermediary service fees. The lightning protection permits for building construction and municipal infrastructure projects currently undertaken by meteorological departments will be incorporated into the review of construction drawings and completion acceptance filing, and supervised by housing and urban-rural development departments. Qualification permits for lightning protection units will be standardized, and lightning protection safety supervision will be strengthened. Implementing this reform can prevent duplicate permits for more than 200,000 projects annually, shorten processing time by about 40 days, and reduce enterprise burdens.
Deploying the cleanup and standardization of deposits in the engineering construction sector
The meeting pointed out that starting with the engineering construction sector, cleaning up and standardizing excessive and cumbersome deposits from various parties is conducive to reducing costs, enhancing vitality, developing a credit economy, building a unified market, and promoting fair competition. The meeting determined:
First, clean up all types of deposits that construction enterprises need to pay in engineering construction. Except for the four deposits established in accordance with laws and regulations—migrant worker wages, bidding, performance, and project quality—all other deposits shall be cancelled. Those already collected must be refunded before the end of this year.
Second, without State Council approval, no region or department may establish new deposit items in the engineering construction sector. Promote information disclosure of deposits and establish a reporting and investigation mechanism.
Third, change the method of deposit payment. For retained deposits, construction enterprises may pay by bank guarantee. Collecting units must strictly return them on time according to regulations.
Fourth, standardize deposit management. The upper limit for the retention ratio of project quality deposits shall not exceed 5% of the total project payment settlement amount; if performance deposits have been paid before the completion of the project, the construction unit may not simultaneously retain project quality deposits. Implement differentiated deposit methods for migrant worker wage deposits; enterprises that have not defaulted on wages for a certain period may be exempted or have reduced deposits, while enterprises that default on wages shall have their deposit ratios increased.
Preliminary estimates suggest that these measures will revitalize nearly one trillion yuan of funds for construction enterprises.