Harbin, capital of China's northernmost Heilongjiang province, recently launched preferential measures to further support small and medium-sized enterprises in overcoming operational difficulties caused by the COVID-19 outbreak.
 
The newly-launched measures focus on seven aspects, including tax and fee reductions, housing rent reductions and exemptions, delaying housing provident fund payments, alleviating corporate financing pressure, stabilizing employment, accelerating the recovery of the catering industry, and supporting corporate credit restoration.
 
Tax and fee reduction
 
Harbin will implement a 50 percent reduction in such taxes as resource taxes, urban maintenance and construction taxes, real estate taxes, urban land use taxes, stamp taxes, and cultivated land occupation taxes.
 
For eligible small, medium and micro-sized enterprises and individual business players participating in the unemployment insurance in the form of units, the actual payment of their unemployment insurance in 2021 will be refunded in full, and the portion that exceeds the national and provincial rebates for job stabilization will be borne by the municipal finance.
 
House rent reduction
 
For small, medium and micro-sized enterprises and individual business players that rent real estate owned by municipal, district and county-level government administrative institutions or State-owned enterprises before the release of this policy, rent for the first three months of 2022 will be waived or the rent period will be extended for another three months free of charge.
 
For industrial parks, entrepreneurship and innovation demonstration bases, technology business incubators, and small and micro-enterprise entrepreneurship and innovation bases that grant rent reduction or exemption for resident small and micro-sized enterprises, subsidies will be given for two consecutive months according to the average monthly rent of the enterprises in the previous year, with a maximum amount of 200,000 yuan.
 
Alleviate corporate financing pressure
 
Loan pressures will be eased for enterprises involved in wholesale and retail, accommodation and catering, culture and tourism, transportation and logistics, and manufacturing.
 
The loan guarantee rate will be reduced from 1 percent to 0.5 percent, and the financing guarantee agency funded by the municipal finance will waive the guarantee fee for eligible loans to minimize the financing cost of enterprises.
 
Stable employment
 
During the epidemic, Harbin's State-owned enterprises are not allowed to lay off employees, and should create conditions to absorb more social employment.
 
Small and micro-sized enterprises that hire a sufficient number of new employees in 2022 will be supported by entrepreneurship guaranteed loans.
 
The maximum amount of entrepreneurship guaranteed loans will be increased from the original 3 million yuan to 5 million yuan.
 
Individuals starting a new business will be given a maximum amount of 200,000 yuan in entrepreneurial guaranteed loan support interest-free.