China will reinforce its efforts in cutting corporate fees by 300 billion yuan ($47.6 billion) annually, according to an April 4 decision by a State Council executive meeting chaired by Premier Li Keqiang.

Among the measures, Premier Li emphasized related departments and companies should lower electricity costs for industries and businesses to enhance their competitiveness.

Lowered electricity costs will benefit enterprises from a long-term perspective, since such a measure will lead to lower prices and contribute to more consumption, the Premier said.

He also urged unremitting efforts on implementation of such measures, with a target of lowering 10 percent of electricity costs for general industries and businesses.

He added the results of such implementation should be evaluated by third parties. In addition, enterprises’ feedback and related departments’ reports should match.

At the meeting on April 4, the State Council also decided to extend the interim policy of reducing enterprises’ payment rates for employees’ pension insurance, unemployment insurance and employment injury insurance to April 30, 2019, and similar policies on public housing accumulation funds were extended to April 30, 2020.

Such efforts aim to not only help businesses cut costs, but encourage enterprises to bring benefits to their employees, the Premier said. He added that only if employees got benefits and more income would consumption be expanded and upgraded to push high-quality development of the economy.

Premier Li also stressed efforts to prevent recurrence of unreasonable charges, calling for strict examination and approval on governmental charges and improved institutional mechanisms on business operating service fees.

All related departments should push the cost reduction policy promptly to benefit market participants and the general public within the year, the Premier said.