Han Ximin

ximhan@126.com

THE city is estimated to relieve the epidemic’s effects on enterprises by 60 billion yuan (US$8.53 billion) through fee and rent exemptions and offering subsidies by implementing a package of 16 measures for businesses that was unveiled Feb. 7.

In addition, the city set aside 10 billion yuan to support enterprises’ production resumption, according to a news conference Wednesday.

“The measures include loan support from banks, fund support from investment companies and credit guarantee companies, and government subsidies for loans to small- and medium-sized enterprises,” said Jia Changsheng, director with the Shenzhen Municipal Service Bureau for Small- and Medium-sized Enterprises.

The bureau recommended 164 enterprises to apply for loans from the central bank and State Development Bank. So far, 71 enterprises had received credit lining amounting to 47.2 billion yuan.

The investment and credit guarantee companies provided 450 million yuan of the fund support for SMEs. Banks also increased the compensation rate from 50 percent to 80 percent for the risk loss of new loans bought by SMEs between Feb. 1 and June 30.

To further lower financial difficulties to SMEs, the city has set aside 10 percent of its industrial special fund, 3.4 billion yuan, to subsidize the interest of the loans that enterprises had borrowed from banks. The six-month subsidy will be 50 percent of the interest to be paid and capped at a ceiling of 1 million yuan, according to Jia. The loan interest subsidy will benefit 200,000 enterprises.

The property managements of Stated-owned enterprises (SOEs) administered by municipal and district governments exempted two-month rents for SMEs. At the same time, other SOEs that had operations in Shenzhen are encouraged to appropriately reduce rents and exempt fees in water and electricity. The human resource bureau cut the enterprises’ payments for pension, unemployment, on-duty injuries and medical insurance fees between February and June. The policy benefits 700,000 enterprises. Exemptions and reductions of medical and social insurance fees are expected to reach 30 billion yuan.

The taxation bureau exempted 1.8 billion yuan in housing and land fees between January and March, benefiting 45,300 enterprises. It also approved nearly 3,000 enterprises to delay tax payments involving 1.7 billion yuan.