(Yicai Global) Nov. 1 -- In order to provide a sound legal environment for the development of individual businesses in China and protect their rights and interests, the Regulations on Promoting the Development of Individual Businesses came into effect today.

The document, passed by the State Council, China’s cabinet, in September, specifies policies to promote and support individual businesses with detailed provisions on registration services, providing sites for business operation as well as capital, taxation, finance, and social security.

The regulations also encourage and guide venture capital institutions and social funds to help individual businesses, adding the country should adopt finance and taxation policies favoring individual businesses, not discriminate against them or default on payments to them.

China had 111 million individual businesses as of the end of September, taking up two thirds of the total number of companies and creating jobs for nearly 300 million persons, Pu Chun, deputy head of the State Administration for Market Regulation, told a press conference today.

Most individual businesses are mostly in the fields of wholesale and retail, accommodation, food and beverages, and services for residents, Pu noted, adding that livestreaming, WeChat business and e-commerce, and new media are developing rapidly.

The country has issued many policies to cut taxes and fees to help individual businesses overcome the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic, reducing CNY1.0 trillion (USD138.4 billion) in taxes and fees for them from 2020 to the end of this September, Dai Shiyou, director general of the Tax Policy and Legislation Department of the State Taxation Administration, said at the same press conference.

Over 80 percent of individual businesses nationwide are exempt from paying taxes, and taxes paid monthly on average by the rest fell by 40 percent this year from that in 2019, he added.

Editor: Peter Thomas