Legislature responds to people's concerns

The annual session of the National People's Congress, the top legislature, will open on Thursday. As ever, many are expecting that the brainstorming among NPC deputies will bring substantial changes to specific government policies, which will be to the benefit of the general public.

For example, at Wednesday's news conference just ahead of the NPC session, a reporter asked why the Ministry of Finance had under its own discretion raised the tax on gas several times even though it has been emphasized at Party congress sessions that the levying of taxes should be subject to approval of the NPC. The reporter asked the NPC spokeswoman whether the NPC had failed to perform its duty on this issue.

Although the spokeswoman said that the NPC had authorized the State Council, the Cabinet, to make a decision on its own about the levy of various taxes, she emphasized that the Cabinet should also follow the Legislation Law.