Fight against trade associations' arbitrary charges eases burden on Chinese companies

BEIJING, Aug. 21 (Xinhua) -- The Chinese government's campaign to curb arbitrary charges on enterprises by national industry associations and chambers of commerce has shown initial results as it has helped to reduce the companies' burden by about 1.68 billion yuan (about 258 million U.S. dollars), benefiting 771,000 enterprises, figures from the Ministry of Civil Affairs (MCA) showed.

A total of 818 such associations have conducted self-examination on their charging items so far since the campaign was jointly launched by the MCA, the National Development and Reform Commission and the State Administration for Market Regulation in June, the MCA said in a report.

Given the obstinacy, complexity and frequent occurrence of arbitrary charges, continuous efforts should be made to tackle the problem, the ministry said, noting that it would next target forced membership admission and related collection of membership fees, as well as charging enterprises multiple times for the same services, and other unwarranted fees charged by these associations.