Unnecessary fees

The central government's decision to abolish administrative fees for individual-owned businesses and market vendors from September 1 will not just promote employment growth. It will also help pave the way for budgetary reforms to include all government revenues in the annual budget.

Local agencies of the State Administration for Industry and Commerce (SAIC) have collected the administrative fees for about two decades. Such fees were previously targeted at establishing local markets, covering small business owners and vendors' service charges from local market watchdogs and recovering some of the operational costs of local SAIC authorities.

These administrative fees have constituted an important revenue source for local authorities. But many individual business owners have blamed the fees for being too burdensome, almost twice as much as business taxes.