THE government will cut some pension contributions and insurance fees to help companies cope with the coronavirus, while firms in Hubei Province won’t have to pay pensions, jobless and work-injury insurance until June.

Small firms in other provinces will be exempt from paying pensions, jobless insurance and work injury insurance until June, while payments by large firms will be reduced by half until April, CCTV quoted the State Council as saying Tuesday.

Before the end of June, firms can apply for delaying their payments to the State housing provident fund and unpaid repay loans to the provident fund due to the virus’s impact will not be treated as overdue, the State Council said.

Local governments must ensure the orderly return of migrant workers to their workplace in areas that have not been seriously affected by the epidemic, the State Council said.

The government will also keep the minimum purchase price for rice stable this year, it said. It will accelerate hog production and increase State reserves of frozen pork, it added.

Many small firms face cash crunches because of a lack of orders. Just 34 percent of nearly 1,000 small and medium-sized firms said they could survive for a month on current cash flow, a recent survey by Tsinghua University and Peking University showed.

A third said they could last for two months, while 18 percent said they could stick it out for three months.(SD-Agencies)