The Ministry of Civil Affairs was interviewed on the Opinions on Further Regulating the Charge Management of Trade Associations and Chambers of Commerce.
Responsible comrades of the Social Organization Administration Bureau of the Ministry of Civil Affairs on Further Standardizing the Chamber of Commerce of Industry Associations
Opinions on Charge Management was interviewed by reporters.
On November 21, 2017, with the consent of the State Council, the National Development and Reform Commission, the Ministry of Civil Affairs, the Ministry of Finance and the State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission jointly issued the Opinions on Further Regulating the Charge Management of Trade Associations (NDRC [2017] No.1999, hereinafter referred to as the Opinions). Guided by the spirit of the 19th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, the Opinions are rich in content and highly targeted, and have formulated a series of practical and effective institutional provisions from two dimensions: palliative and radical. In order to accurately understand the spirit of the Opinions, promote the effective implementation of the Opinions, effectively regulate the charging behavior of trade associations and chambers of commerce, and reduce the burden on enterprises, the person in charge of the Social Organization Administration of the Ministry of Civil Affairs accepted an interview with reporters on relevant policy issues.
1. What is the background of the Opinions?
A:Trade associations and chambers of commerce are an important force in China’s economic construction and social development. Since the reform and opening up, with the establishment and improvement of China’s socialist market economic system, China’s trade associations have developed steadily and rapidly, and their overall scale and quality have been greatly improved, which has played an active role in strengthening industry self-discipline, providing decision-making consultation, serving enterprise development, and innovating social governance. However, in the process of development, some trade associations charge fees in violation of regulations, such as duplication, high and excessive fees, which increase the burden on enterprises and society, disrupt the market order and have a great negative impact on society. It is urgent to further strengthen positive guidance and standardized management. Especially recently, in the fourth major inspection organized by the State Council, 18 inspection teams have discovered a series of clues about illegal charges by trade associations and chambers of commerce, and some problems are still outstanding. For example, Wuhan Iron and Steel Co., Ltd. and Shandong Iron and Steel Group Co., Ltd. have participated in more than 100 associations and chambers of commerce, and each payment ranges from several hundred yuan to millions of yuan. The charging subjects are numerous and varied, which increases the burden on enterprises. In order to improve the business environment, effectively reduce the burden on enterprises, and promote the healthy development of trade associations and chambers of commerce, in accordance with the instructions of leading comrades in the State Council, the Development and Reform Commission, the Ministry of Civil Affairs took the lead, and the Ministry of Finance, the State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission and other departments participated in the study and drafting of the Opinions on Further Regulating the Charge Management of Trade Associations and Chambers of Commerce, which was officially issued after being approved by the State Council.
2. What are the new regulations and requirements in the Opinions on strengthening the management of membership fees of trade associations?
A:In the fourth major inspection organized by the State Council this year, 18 inspection teams found that the clues about the charges related to enterprises of trade associations mainly focused on the high membership fee standard, repeated collection of membership fees, and the mismatch between fees and services. In order to effectively solve these problems, the Opinions have formulated a series of new regulations and requirements for strengthening the management of membership fees of trade associations. The details are as follows:
First, when collecting membership fees, trade associations should make clear the basic services they provide and make them public. It is strictly forbidden to charge only without services. Included in the basic service items of trade associations and chambers of commerce, no additional fees may be charged to members.
Second, it is necessary to comprehensively consider the economic situation, market environment, business conditions and affordability of enterprises, adjust and standardize the way of collecting membership fees based on production and sales volume and enterprise scale, and set the upper limit of membership fees reasonably. This provision should be understood from the following two aspects: first, the Opinions clarify that the trade associations will collect membership fees based on production and sales volume and enterprise scale, which is not a floating membership fee standard; Second, it should be adjusted and standardized in accordance with the requirements of the Opinions: 1. On the basis of reasonable calculation of the production and sales volume and enterprise scale of member enterprises, the membership fee level should be determined not to exceed 4 levels; 2. Membership dues can’t be linked with the production, sales and scale of member enterprises indefinitely. The clear amount of membership dues of each grade should be determined on the basis of reasonable calculation, and the same grade should be charged according to the clear amount.
Third, membership fees shall not be collected repeatedly, and the headquarters and branches (representative offices) of trade associations shall not collect membership fees from the same member enterprise separately. The branch (representative) of the Chamber of Commerce of an industry association shall not set the membership fee standard separately, and if the membership fee standard has been set separately, it shall be rectified immediately.
Fourth, it is necessary to set a reasonable membership fee level, generally not exceeding 4 levels, and different charging standards may not be subdivided for the same membership fee level.
Fifth, the membership fee should be managed by a special account, and the annual income and expenditure should be announced to members and consciously supervised.
3. How does the Opinions regulate the management of administrative fees of trade associations and chambers of commerce?
A:The "Opinions" clearly stated that it is necessary to strictly manage the administrative fees of trade associations and chambers of commerce. Fees collected by trade associations and chambers of commerce on behalf of government functions in accordance with laws and administrative regulations shall be included in the management of administrative fees. The charging items and standards shall be determined after the examination and approval procedures are strictly performed, and the charging items and standards shall not be increased without authorization.
4. How does the Opinions regulate the management of service charges of trade associations and chambers of commerce?
A:The "Opinions" clearly stated that it is necessary to standardize the business service charges of trade associations and chambers of commerce. Trade associations and chambers of commerce shall, in accordance with the relevant provisions of laws and regulations on operators’ obligations and the principle of voluntary paid service, carry out business service activities within the purpose and business scope, and standardize related charging behaviors. For government pricing management, strictly implement the charging standards formulated by the competent price department; For those who implement market-regulated prices, the charging standards shall be fairly determined and made public in accordance with the principles of fairness, legality, honesty and trustworthiness, and services consistent with quality and price shall be provided. Trade associations and chambers of commerce shall not force services and charge fees.
5. How does the Opinions regulate the activities of appraisal and commendation of trade associations and chambers of commerce?
A:In order to further standardize the appraisal and commendation activities of trade associations and chambers of commerce, the Opinions propose that trade associations and chambers of commerce must strictly fulfill the application and approval procedures when carrying out appraisal and commendation activities. Approved appraisal activities must conform to the purpose and business scope stipulated in the articles of association, and strictly implement the approved awards and conditions. Appraisal and recognition should adhere to the principles of fairness, justice, openness and non-profit, so that the award setting is reasonable, the selection scope and scale are appropriate, and the selection conditions and procedures are strict. No fees shall be charged to the objects participating in the appraisal and commendation activities, and no related fees shall be charged directly or in disguise before and after the selection.
6. How does the Opinions solve the problem of high fees charged by trade associations and chambers of commerce reflected by enterprises?
A:In recent years, individual trade associations still charge membership fees at a high standard, which increases the burden on enterprises to some extent. In this regard, the "Opinions" clearly stated that the chamber of commerce of industry associations should appropriately reduce the high membership fees and other charging standards to reduce the burden on enterprises. The chamber of commerce of industry associations should comprehensively sort out the charges for service items and make them public. Cancel unreasonable charging items, reduce the charging standard for service items with more surplus, and do not charge in disguised form by means of compulsory donation or compulsory sponsorship, and effectively improve the service quality for the retained charging items.
7. How do the Opinions solve the problem that some enterprises report that there are too many trade associations and chambers of commerce?
A:For the above problems, the Opinions mainly stipulate from the following three aspects: First, improve the registration and access management of trade associations. Strictly control the entrance of registration, study and formulate standards and methods for direct registration of trade associations and chambers of commerce, further improve the access system of trade associations and chambers of commerce, and strengthen standardized management at the source. The second is to standardize the behavior of developing members of trade associations and chambers of commerce. It is not allowed to rely on government departments, use monopoly advantages and industry influence to force or disguise compulsory membership or hinder withdrawal. The chamber of commerce of national trade associations generally absorbs representative enterprise members in the whole country, while the chamber of commerce of provincial trade associations generally absorbs representative enterprise members in this province. The third is to advocate enterprises to join and participate in activities in a pragmatic and rational way. Enterprises should strengthen their self-discipline in joining the trade associations, strengthen internal management, and ensure that legal entities at all levels can reasonably participate in the activities of trade associations and chambers of commerce according to actual needs. State-owned enterprises should further sort out the situation of joining various trade associations and chambers of commerce and standardize management.
8. How do the Opinions consider the phenomenon that trade associations use administrative influence to charge fees?
A:In view of the phenomenon that trade associations use administrative influence to collect fees indiscriminately, the Opinions put forward that it is necessary to further promote the reform of decoupling between trade associations and administrative organs, realize the decoupling between trade associations and business authorities in terms of institutions, functions, asset finance, personnel management, party building and foreign affairs, clarify the functional boundaries between administrative organs and trade associations, cut off the interest chain, establish a new management system and operation mechanism, and promote trade associations to become legally established, self-organized, service-oriented, standardized and governed.
9. What provisions have been made in the Opinions to strengthen self-discipline and promote the construction of the credit system?
A:Focusing on strengthening the self-discipline awareness of trade associations and strengthening post-event supervision, the Opinions mainly make the following provisions: First, it requires the establishment of a system of good faith commitment and self-discipline conventions of trade associations and chambers of commerce. The Chamber of Commerce of trade associations should disclose the letter of commitment of good faith to the society, formulate a self-discipline convention, standardize the charging behavior in accordance with the Guide to Price Behavior of Trade Associations, and improve the level of industry self-discipline. Second, it is required to establish a centralized publicity system for charging information of trade associations and chambers of commerce. Relying on the guidance of the National Development and Reform Commission and the People’s Bank of China, the "Information Publicity System of Trade Associations and Chambers of Commerce" of the "Credit China" website sponsored by the National Information Center centrally publicizes and regularly updates information such as charging items, charging nature, service content, charging standards and basis. Third, it is required to establish a blacklist management system for trade associations and chambers of commerce. The illegal charging behavior of trade associations and chambers of commerce will be recorded in their credit files, and recorded in the personal credit records of their principal and direct responsible persons, and relevant information will be included in the national credit information sharing platform led by the National Development and Reform Commission. Promote cross-regional, cross-departmental and cross-industry collaborative supervision, carry out joint punishment for dishonesty, and impose restrictions on government procurement of services, annual inspection, and evaluation. Fourth, it is required to play the guiding and supervising role of third-party evaluation. Revise the evaluation standards of trade associations and chambers of commerce, and timely release the evaluation results of trade associations and chambers of commerce.
X. What measures should the chamber of commerce of trade associations take to implement the Opinions on membership fee management?
A:Chambers of commerce of trade associations should attach great importance to the study and implementation of the Opinions, especially to deeply understand the spirit of the Opinions. In accordance with the provisions of the Opinions and in combination with the Notice of the Ministry of Civil Affairs and the Ministry of Finance on Cancelling the Filing and Regulating the Management of Membership Fees for Social Organizations (No.166 [2014] of the People’s Republic of China), the membership fee standards of associations and chambers of commerce should be comprehensively sorted out. If the existing membership fee standards are inconsistent with the new provisions and requirements of the Opinions, they should be sorted out in 2014.
Where there is an industry association, the headquarters of the Chamber of Commerce and the branch (representative) institutions repeatedly collect membership fees, they should immediately and unconditionally cancel the membership fee standard of the branch (representative) institutions and may not continue to collect them. Where the membership fee standard exceeds 4 grades, it must be adjusted to 4 grades and below, and the same membership fee grade cannot be subdivided into different standards. Anyone who collects membership dues based on production and sales, enterprise scale, etc., must determine the clear amount of membership dues for each grade, and collect them at the same grade according to the clear amount. All associations and chambers of commerce must clearly define the basic service items that should be provided when collecting membership fees, and must set up special accounts to manage membership fees and separately account for membership fee income and expenditure.
Considering that "Opinions" is a policy measure approved by the State Council, in order to facilitate and speed up the implementation, the procedure of adjusting the membership fee standard of the Association Chamber of Commerce can be optimized appropriately through research. The Association Chamber of Commerce adjusts the membership fee standard according to the "Opinions". The new membership fee standard is the same as or lower than the original membership fee standard, which can be passed by the Council (or the Standing Council) and ratified by secret ballot at the next general meeting of members (representatives); If the new membership fee standard is higher than the original membership fee standard, a general meeting of members (representatives) must be held and voted by secret ballot. If it does not involve the adjustment of the membership fee standard, but only defines the basic service items, it can be approved by the Council (or the Standing Council) and ratified by secret ballot at the next general meeting of members (representatives).
Civil affairs departments at all levels in the annual inspection work in 2018, to conduct a special inspection of the Association Chamber of Commerce membership fee standard adjustment work, who do not meet the provisions of the "Opinions", will be severely dealt with, and send a copy to the price department, the financial department, the tax department, the competent business unit or the relevant departments.
XI. How to intensify the investigation and punishment of illegal charging behavior of trade associations and chambers of commerce in the next step?
A:In order to intensify the investigation and punishment of illegal charging behaviors of trade associations and chambers of commerce, the Opinions further clarified the supervisory responsibilities of various departments, and demanded a sound comprehensive supervision system for charging behaviors of social organizations such as trade associations and chambers of commerce, and strengthened supervision after the event. Specifically, civil affairs departments should strictly supervise management and law enforcement inspection in accordance with relevant registration management regulations. Audit institutions shall conduct audit supervision over trade associations and chambers of commerce according to law. The price and financial departments shall strengthen supervision over the charging and price behavior of trade associations and chambers of commerce in accordance with the division of responsibilities. The human resources and social security departments strengthen supervision over the licensing and identification of professional qualifications of trade associations and chambers of commerce. The administrative departments of various industries should provide necessary policy guidance on the charging service behavior of trade associations and chambers of commerce according to their functions, and perform relevant regulatory responsibilities. The "Opinions" also stressed that it is necessary to strictly investigate and deal with the illegal charging behaviors of trade associations and chambers of commerce, so that they can be found together, investigated together and exposed together, and the business competent units or relevant departments shall investigate the responsibilities of their main responsible persons and directly responsible persons according to the rules and regulations. If the circumstances are serious, they shall be ordered to replace them.
12. What are the measures to encourage and support the Opinions?
A:In order to further enhance the self-survival and self-development ability of trade associations and chambers of commerce, the Opinions call for improving the policies and measures for purchasing services from social organizations such as trade associations and chambers of commerce. When the government purchases services, it should reasonably calculate the consideration according to the cost of market mechanism, so as to ensure that the undertaker has a balanced income and expenditure and an appropriate surplus; The fees shall be paid in time according to the contract and the relevant provisions of the centralized treasury payment system, and the service fees shall not be defaulted or paid in other non-monetary ways. The Opinions also encourage trade associations and chambers of commerce to undertake the industrial, professional, technical and auxiliary functions of government transfer functions, give full play to the advantages of industry representatives, industry self-discipline, industry service and industry coordination, and effectively improve service capacity, quality and level.
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