At present, some private enterprises and small and medium-sized enterprises encounter some difficulties in their development. Some local government departments and large enterprises are in arrears with the accounts of private enterprises and small and medium-sized enterprises, which has a negative impact on the capital turnover and economic benefits of enterprises. According to the deployment of the CPC Central Committee and the State Council, since November last year, all regions, relevant departments and large state-owned enterprises have actively cleared up the accounts owed by private enterprises and small and medium-sized enterprises.
Now, what progress has been made in clearing up arrears? What are the problems and difficulties? How to prevent the phenomenon of "clearing while owing" and "clearing and owing"? On February 25th, at the briefing held by the State Council Press Office, Xin Guobin, Vice Minister of Industry and Information Technology, Wu Hongbing, Director of Financial Supervision Bureau of the State Council State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission, and Hao Lei, Deputy Director of Budget Department of Ministry of Finance, responded to relevant questions.
Paying off the accounts of private enterprises exceeded 160 billion yuan.
"If the problem of arrears is delayed for a long time, it will not only affect the normal production and operation of enterprises, but even lead to the closure and bankruptcy of enterprises and a large number of unemployed employees, which will affect the national economy, people’s livelihood and social stability." Xin Guobin pointed out that the work of clearing debts is to further stimulate the innovation and entrepreneurial vitality of private enterprises and small and medium-sized enterprises, stabilize employment and residents’ income, and provide important support for safeguarding and improving people’s livelihood and ensuring the overall stability of the economy and society.
Xin Guobin introduced that in the past three months, with the joint efforts of all regions and relevant departments, China’s debt settlement work has achieved phased results, and the relevant situation of sub-regions, sub-industries and types of arrears has been initially mastered, laying a solid foundation for promoting comprehensive debt settlement. Government departments and large state-owned enterprises across the country have paid off more than 160 billion yuan in accounts of private enterprises, of which the arrears of wages for migrant workers and people’s livelihood safety projects have been given priority.
"It is a long-standing problem to pay off the wages of migrant workers before the Spring Festival every year. This year, this work has made very positive progress. Before the Spring Festival, there were no mass incidents caused by the problem of wage arrears for migrant workers." Xin Guobin said.
Wu Hongbing revealed that the central enterprises’ work of clearing up the accounts owed to private enterprises and small and medium-sized enterprises has completed the phased objectives and tasks on time in accordance with the relevant requirements of the State Council. By the end of January this year, 820 million yuan of wages owed to migrant workers had all been cleared; The accounts owed to private enterprises have been paid off 83.9 billion yuan, and the progress of clearing debts is 75.2%.
Wu Hongbing said that at present, the central enterprises, as Party A, have executed nearly 7 million contracts with private enterprises, with an amount exceeding 10 trillion yuan, and a total of 111.6 billion yuan of overdue debts have been cleared, accounting for 1.1% of the contract amount being executed. At the same time, the central enterprises pay about 250 billion yuan of wages to migrant workers every year, and most enterprises can pay wages to migrant workers on time, and pay more than 18 billion yuan as required.
In addition, Hao Lei said that the Ministry of Finance actively worked out a settlement plan, improved budgetary measures, strengthened supervision and guidance, and steadily and orderly promoted debt settlement. As of January this year, the wages owed to migrant workers by central government departments and central enterprises supervised by the Ministry of Finance have all been repaid, and other arrears have also been settled as required. At present, funds are actively being secured to ensure that the arrears are completed on time.
The amount of work involved is extensive, and the problem of "triangular debt" is prominent.
Since the reform and opening up, China’s private economy has grown from small to large, from weak to strong, and has become an indispensable force to promote China’s economic and social development. At present, the downward pressure on China’s economy is increasing, and the real economy is facing more difficulties. It is of great significance to do a good job in clearing debts to support the development of private economy.
"Although positive progress has been made, we must also see that the work of clearing debts is a very difficult and complicated issue, and we still face many difficulties." Xin Guobin said.
Xin Guobin pointed out that there is a wide range of work, and it is still difficult to fully and accurately grasp the arrears in a short period of time. For example, a subsidiary of a central enterprise reported that if the accounts are sorted out clearly, 60,000 contracts should be checked, while there are nearly 7 million contracts checked by central enterprises nationwide. At the same time, there are also problems such as differences in the identification of overdue accounts, which require a lot of manpower and material resources to identify.
Xin Guobin said that in clearing up the government’s arrears, due to historical problems such as blindly spreading stalls and going to projects in some places, coupled with limited financial resources in some places, there is some pressure to repay on schedule, which needs to be studied and solved step by step. In addition, some places reflect that the current accounts receivable of small and medium-sized private enterprises remain high, and the problem of "triangular debt" of upstream and downstream enterprises is outstanding, and the formation mechanism of preventing "triangular debt" needs to be improved and perfected.
"These problems are intertwined, which also increases the complexity and difficulty of solving problems to a certain extent, and need to be improved and solved in the future work." Xin Guobin said.
Establish a long-term mechanism to prevent the phenomenon of "clearing while owing" and "clearing and owing"
In the future, how should we continue to do a good job in clearing the accounts owed to private enterprises and small and medium-sized enterprises?
"We will urge and guide local governments and relevant departments to pay off their debts and make sure that the objectives and tasks can be completed on schedule." Xin Guobin said that he will continue to strengthen supervision and guidance, increase accountability, establish and improve a long-term mechanism, and create a good environment for the development of the private economy.
In terms of supervision and guidance, it is necessary to promote local and relevant departments to speed up the improvement of settlement plans through situation scheduling and audit supervision; In terms of increasing accountability, the localities and departments that fail to promote the work of clearing debts will be notified and joint disciplinary measures will be implemented; In the construction of long-term mechanism, it is necessary to make clear provisions on the payment time limit, payment responsibility and punishment measures of accounts, and at the same time strengthen the audit of government projects, and improve the relevant provisions on the payment of project progress funds to prevent the phenomenon of "clearing while owing" and "clearing and owing".
Xin Guobin particularly emphasized that the core of establishing a long-term mechanism is to solve the problem of lack of laws and establish a legal guarantee system, which is the most critical measure to ensure the financing and development of upstream and downstream enterprises and large, medium and small enterprises.
Wu Hongbing said that the State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission of the State Council will urge the supervised central enterprises to strive to pay off all remaining undisputed accounts before the end of June this year; For differences and disputes, we should actively communicate and solve them. At the same time, it will also guide the central enterprises to establish a long-term mechanism to prevent arrears before clearing.
Hao Lei said that the Ministry of Finance will continue to urge the central departments and relevant enterprises to implement the main responsibilities, speed up the work progress and complete the debt settlement as soon as possible.(Reporter Liu Kun)
