2. Keeping the operations of market entities stable and maintaining job security by strengthening macro policies.

We will improve policies for easing the burdens and difficulties of market entities and create a stronger foundation for achieving a stable and sounder economic performance.

We will implement a new package of tax-and-fee policies to support enterprises.

We will continue to take temporary steps and institutional measures and apply policies for both tax reductions and refunds.

First, we will extend tax and fee reduction policies that support manufacturing, micro and small enterprises and self-employed individuals, and expand the scale and scope of these policies.

A temporary exemption on VAT payments will be granted to small taxpayers.

Corporate income tax on annual taxable income of between one million and three million yuan will be halved once again for micro and small enterprises.

Local governments should also adopt effective tax-and-fee reduction steps based on local conditions and in accordance with the law to maintain the scale of tax-and-fee reductions and keep market expectations stable.

Second, to improve the cash flow of enterprises, promote consumption-driven investment, and further improve the system for refunding VAT credits, we will issue VAT credit refunds on a big scale this year.

We will give priority to micro and small enterprises, refunding outstanding VAT credits to them in one lump sum by the end of June, while also fully refunding newly added credits.

With a focus on supporting manufacturing, we will work to fully resolve problems in refunding VAT credits in manufacturing, research and technical services, environmental protection, electricity and gas, and transportation industries.

Such a substantial increase in VAT credit refunds will help strongly boost market confidence.

Tax refunds and cuts are expected to total 2.5 trillion yuan this year.

VAT credit refunds will account for 1.5 trillion yuan of this sum and all go straight to enterprises.

The central government will provide greater fiscal support for local governments and allocate fiscal subsidies directly to the prefecture and county levels.

Local governments and relevant departments should develop sound systems to allocate funds more effectively.

We must ensure that the critically important policy of tax refunds and cuts takes full effect, in order to provide enterprises with timely assistance and help them generate fresh vitality.

We will encourage the financial sector to provide more effective support to the real economy.

We will make good use of instruments to support inclusive loans to micro and small businesses, and increase re-lending for agricultural and small enterprises.

We will strengthen supervision and assessment to promote a marked increase in inclusive loans to micro and small businesses and a further rise in the proportion of collateral-free loans and first-time loans.

We will see that financial institutions have a good understanding of credit policies, ensure continued financing support for industries and enterprises hit hard by Covid-19, and prevent industry-wide lending restrictions, forced early repayment of loans, and arbitrary termination of loan agreements.

We will make good use of policy-backed and development finance.

We will promote the sharing of enterprise credit information and move faster to achieve information sharing between financial institutions and tax offices, customs, electric utilities and other agencies.

The government financing guaranty will be expanded to cover more micro and small businesses.

We will strive to create a favorable financing environment and help resolve the financing difficulties of enterprises in the real economy, especially MSMEs.