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Tax department move to hurt collection |
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The State Administration of Taxation issued a document recently saying taxes should be levied on employees' perks, including traffic and communication allowances. The move is not only ill timed, but also bad for the tax department |
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Boost for SMEs |
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The new policy that the State Council rolled out to strengthen support for the development of small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) is long overdue. |
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Party meets to build democracy, fight corruption |
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Intra-party democracy and the fight against corruption are expected to headline discussions at a key annual meeting of the Communist Party of China (CPC) this week. |
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Migrant workers need flexible insurance policy |
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Yi Chengfang, a 55-year-old first generation migrant worker has been insured for 10 years in Guangzhou, south China's Guangdong Province. But she cannot receive benefits from her pension plan, because Guangzhou requires migrant workers to be continuingly insured for 15 years in the city before they can receive pensions. |
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Areas of concern for the coming Party meeting |
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A National School of Administration professor makes a forward-looking analysis on the coming Communist Party meeting scheduled on September 15-18. |
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Selling some hope to vendors |
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Millions of street vendors and their plight have once again raised public concern, as a draft ordinance, after soliciting public opinions for one month, is likely to bring about a fateful change. |
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Smart media policy |
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Local governments are learning hard lessons from their poor handling of the news media, which in the past often made a bad situation worse or turned a small incident into a bigger one. |
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Economy housing needs transparency |
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A person who recently applied to Beijing authorities for an economy apartment reportedly had an 18-digit ID card number with no other numerals but "1". The "ridiculous" ID card number has raised serious doubts about the transparency in the economy housing scheme. The authorities should take the matter seriously and give the public a convincing explanation. |
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Land campaign needs proper back-up |
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The Ministry of Land and Resources began a campaign yesterday to prevent property developers from "hoarding" plots. But unless the move is backed up by deeper reform of land-use rights, there is no guarantee that the campaign will progress far. |
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Collapse of standards |
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Every time they brag about higher education, the limelight is on scale. Making college education accessible to more is of course something to be proud of. |
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Case for tax cuts |
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It is absolutely right for the State Administration of Taxation to standardize collection of personal income taxes. But the timing is inopportune, as this comes when more tax incentives are badly needed to boost domestic consumption. |
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Rule change impacts little on market: analysts |
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China's move to do away with a four-year-old regulation on auto parts imports, effective Tuesday, would have limited impact on the country's auto market, analysts say. |
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New rural pension plan to benefit aging farmers |
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A pilot rural pension program launched in China in August is expected to embrace 10 percent of the nation's counties by the end of 2009, and expand to cover the whole country by 2020. |
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Property declaration: pros & cons |
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Property declaration by officials in the public sector is a hot topic this year. A compulsory property declaration regime, which has served well in many developed countries, is a mighty weapon against corruption. Lessons from other countries reveal that a sound property declaration system has at least four significant features. |
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Hurdles to growth |
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During a rare online discussion with netizens on Wednesday, top legislators correctly pinpointed the declining share of individual income in GDP as the main culprit that has hindered consumption growth in China. |