SASAC First Responds To High Tax Burden Of Central Enterprises

Shortly after the 2009 Review of the SASAC of the State Council, there was a wave of abuse.

The most widely cited number in this release is the conclusion that "the comprehensive tax burden of state-owned enterprises is 5 times the average of private enterprises".

In August 16th, the SASAC related people received exclusive interviews and questioned publicly.

"

In August 3rd, the way of reporting state-owned assets was first released to the public for the first time.

Although it is known as "focus on disclosing the situation of CSR fulfillment by the central government to the society", the SASAC's 2009 Review (hereinafter referred to as the "review") lists 7 pcripts, including the value added and tax payment of state-owned assets, the adjustment of the monopoly industries, the salary distribution and so on.

Among them, the central enterprises

The review shows that from 2002 to 2009, the tax paid by central enterprises increased from 291 billion 500 million yuan to 11475 billion yuan, with an average annual growth rate of 21.62% and a total of 5 trillion and 400 billion yuan of taxes paid to the state.

Data research shows that the tax burden of state-owned enterprises is obviously higher than that of other types of enterprises. In recent years, the average tax burden is 27.3%, which is more than 5 times the comprehensive average of the tax burden of private enterprises. It is 2 times the average tax burden of other companies with the highest tax burden.

This is

Su Guifeng, director of the Information Technology Department of the SASAC, said in an interview with China Economic Weekly in August 16th that "the central enterprises are more law-abiding in terms of paying taxes, and they are able to pay taxes according to law instead of evading taxes or evading taxes."

The high tax burden of the central enterprises is the performance of the integrity of the central enterprises.

Compared with the developed western market economy, China's market economy started late, especially in the face of fierce market competition at home and abroad, as well as the institutional and regulatory environment that still needs to be improved. Many enterprises, especially some small and medium-sized enterprises, inevitably have problems of stealing or evasion intentionally or unintentionally.

In this regard, insiders attributed it to: China's tax rate is relatively high, the tax system is complex, and citizens' tax awareness is weak. Therefore, tax evasion has become a common phenomenon throughout the development of enterprises.

In Su Guifeng's view, central enterprises have done better in this respect than private enterprises.

In contrast, the central enterprises and state-owned enterprises are the backbone of the national economy. From the perspective of asset attributes, it is also the wealth of the state and the people, without the power to evade taxes and tax evasion. Moreover, in recent years, the audit department has been very strict in supervising the central enterprises, and the operation of the central enterprises is relatively regular.

Both internal and external audits ensure that the central enterprises pay taxes according to law.

Su Guifeng said.

High tax burden has not been passed on to consumers.

Nevertheless, the bright data is still being questioned.

"The tax burden of central enterprises is not worth a lot of merit" and "tax burden is a sweet burden for central enterprises". "The social resources that central enterprises occupy are far higher than those of private enterprises, and complain that the tax burden of central enterprises is too high is the eldest son's act of spoiled", "the monopoly status of state-owned enterprises and the long sleeve dance under the background of political rights, which has occupied the convenience of heaven, earth, people and convenience" and so on.

In many remarks, the words "most of the high taxes are turned to consumers" are even more striking.

Wang Zhiwei, a professor at the school of economics, Peking University, is making sure that the central enterprises can have such a value and value added report in terms of total assets, business income and profits. At the same time, he believes that most of the tax revenue of the central enterprises is in the production and circulation links, and the taxes in the production and circulation sectors should be included in the cost and become an integral part of the product price.

That is to say, the vast majority of taxes of central enterprises are passed on to consumers, and eventually they are paid by consumers.

This seemingly reasonable view was rebutted by Su Guifeng, director of the State Council's information office. He told the China Economic Weekly: "this is actually changing the concept. The state's fee and tax standards are alike regardless of what type of enterprises."

The high tax burden of central enterprises is the conclusion of research institutions.

In the review of the high tax burden of central enterprises, the average tax burden of state-owned enterprises is 27.3%, and the comprehensive tax burden of state-owned enterprises is more than 5 times the average of private enterprises, and 2 times the average tax burden of stock companies. These three figures are especially conspicuous.

According to "China Economic Weekly", a few days ago, the media carried out a statistical analysis of the tax burden of A share listed companies. The results showed that among the more than 1700 listed companies of A shares, the average tax burden of the 992 state-owned enterprises was only 10%, while the average tax burden of the remaining private enterprises was as high as 24%.. According to the data, the private enterprises were 14 percentage points higher than the overseas ones, indicating that the tax burden of the private enterprises was far greater than that of the state-owned enterprises.

Against this background, the "tax burden of state-owned enterprises is 5 times higher than that of private enterprises" in the review. Moreover, the SASAC has not disclosed the relevant calculation methods and data sources. For a time, "how to deal with 5 times theory" has become a hot topic.

Some scholars even questioned the motives of SASAC issuing this review.

Hu Yijian, a professor at the school of public economics and management of Shanghai University of Finance and Economics, said that the information should be reliable, since the information is publicly released by the SASAC.

But because there is no specific source of data and formula, it is impossible to judge whether the conclusion is reliable or not.

In an interview with China Economic Weekly, the SASAC said that this data is not calculated by the SASAC, but is based on data collected from the Yearbook of China's tax Yearbook and China statistical yearbook by the school of Finance and finance of Renmin University of China.

Reporters noted that in the 87 page review, there is no specific formula for the tax burden. In addition to several charts, nearly 300 words are also cited from the school of Finance and finance of Renmin University of China.

The study also shows that "further reform of fiscal and taxation systems is needed to create a fair competition environment for state-owned enterprises".

{page_break}

The high tax burden of central enterprises has nothing to do with real estate?

The real estate industry has always been a high tax burden industry. With the announcement of the high tax burden data of central enterprises, public opinion once again focused on the argument that "central enterprises should not withdraw from real estate".

In fact, as early as March 18th this year, Li Rongrong, the director of the SASAC, has announced the "remission order". The 78 central enterprises that do not take the real estate as the main business will withdraw from the real estate business, and retain the 16 main businesses of the central enterprises as real estate.

It is reported that since the SASAC issued the "recall order" so far, 78 central enterprises have all handed over to the exit plan.

On the one hand, the majority of central enterprises are gradually withdrawing from real estate, and on the other hand, the debate on whether or not central enterprises should withdraw from real estate will continue to this day.

In fact, from the SASAC issued the "remission order", the voice of the central enterprises to engage in real estate has never stopped.

A netizen said that many of the real estate tycoons in the rich list are private owners. The idea of these people is that central enterprises are best not to come in and rob them.

Why do private bosses do what others can't do? Instead of letting these private big owners make real estate, they earn money in their private pockets, rather than letting the central enterprises do so.

And those private real estate tycoons built their houses and ran their money into their pockets, and they could not find anyone.

Wang Zhigang, Minister of the enterprise department of the SASAC Research Center, does not seem to approve of the withdrawal of central enterprises from real estate.

He told China Economic Weekly that the most important thing is to clarify the role of central enterprises.

The central enterprises, as the contributors to the state, necessarily represent the state in exercising the role of investors in maintaining and increasing the value of state-owned assets. They are the backbone and pillars of the national economy.

In addition, the state is also the country of the whole nation. The central enterprises represent the interests of the people in essence, and naturally serve the people.

If the central enterprises withdraw from the real estate sector, let alone the commercial housing, how many private housing owners are willing to build?

Wang Zhigang further analyzed that in the future, along with the continuous expansion of the scale of affordable housing construction in the country, there is still a great demand for a large number of high-quality and powerful state-owned enterprises.

Only in this way can the power rent seeking behavior in the indemnificatory housing field driven by many commercial interests be eliminated and the commercialization of these affordable housing will be ensured.