Premier Li Keqiang emphasized during the State Council executive meeting on Sept 18 that governments and departments at all levels should follow the State Council’s decision on not further burdening enterprises, and ensure stability in current collection of social insurance premiums.

He asked the State Administration of Taxation and the Ministry of Labor and Social Insurance to jointly announce that current social insurance collection policies of all local governments will remain unchanged until institutional reform are fully in place, with any unauthorized adjustments and one-time collection banned.

Premier Li added that the accumulated national pension funds are sufficient to guarantee timely and complete payments to retirees. Under the current macroeconomic background, the collection should not turn into a burden for enterprises and thus affect their market expectations.

“Related departments should enhance the supervision on the implementation of such task by local governments, especially on unauthorized adjustments and collections,” said Premier Li. “Inspection teams from the State Council and the National Audit Office should also carry out random checks, and impose punishment for any violations.”

In the meantime, Premier Li called for speeding up study on plans to lower the premium rates of social insurance by related departments, which should be implemented hand in hand with the reform of collection system, so as to not raise burden for enterprises and stabilize their market expectations.