Suzhou rolls out supportive policies for service industry

A medical worker scans the ID card of a resident in Suzhou New District before nucleic acid testing. [Photo/WeChat account: sndiftz]

Suzhou in East China's Jiangsu province has rolled out a series of measures to alleviate the cash crunch that micro, small and medium-sized enterprises in the service industry are facing amid the latest COVID-19 outbreak.

The services industry refers to sectors, including catering, retail, tourism, transportation, exhibitions, sports and recreation, senior care and education, that have been severely impacted by the epidemic. They are expected to receive financial aid amounting to least 300 million yuan ($47.07 million) from the local government.

Among the measures taken by the Suzhou government are tax and fee reductions, an extension of the deadline for filing tax returns, and rent concessions. These measures will benefit tens of thousands of local private enterprises and individual entrepreneurs.

The city has also issued policies to facilitate financing guarantees, provide interest rate subsidies, and help financial institutions to grant more loans to micro, small and medium-sized enterprises.

The Suzhou government has also proposed exempting public transportation service providers from value-added tax.

Preliminary estimates show that these tax-related measures could result in 70 billion yuan worth of financial relief in 2022.