On the 18th, the Price Bureau of Zhejiang Province issued the “Notice of the Zhejiang Provincial Price Bureau on Reducing Fee Standards for Certain Enterprise-Related Services.” Starting November 25, fee standards for eight categories of enterprise-related services will be reduced across the entire province. Among these are fees for services such as enterprise archive management, verification of registered capital, asset valuation, and agency services for tax registration—each of which will be charged at 70% of the original benchmark fee rates.

This reduction in fee standards for eight categories of business-related services affects eight types of enterprise service providers, including enterprise registration agencies affiliated with industrial and commercial administration departments, labor and employment service agencies, accounting firms, asset valuation agencies, tax agency services, real estate transaction agencies, environmental impact consulting agencies, and environmental monitoring agencies.

The notice stated that enterprise registration agency services provided by agencies under the administration for industry and commerce will handle, on behalf of clients, business entity establishment registration, non-corporate business entity establishment registration, business unit establishment registration, deregistration, amendment registration, annual inspection registration for enterprises, and registration services for foreign enterprises establishing permanent representative offices in China. The fees charged for these services will be 70% of the originally prescribed standard fee rates. Following the reduction in fee standards, the registration fee for a business entity with registered capital of 1 million yuan or less (inclusive) will now be only 420 yuan, and the fee for each inquiry into enterprise registration records—previously set at 100 yuan per inquiry—will be completely eliminated.

Meanwhile, labor and employment service agencies provide fee-based archival storage services for enterprises as well as agency services for labor security matters. The fees for these services are charged at 70% of the original standard rates. For instance, the fee for archival storage services commissioned by organizations has been reduced to 3.5 yuan per month; the fee for handling pension, unemployment, medical, work-related injury, and maternity insurance contribution procedures has been lowered to 10 yuan per person per item per year; and the fee for handling procedures related to talent recruitment has also been reduced to 182 yuan per person per transaction. For certain agency services, the pricing may fluctuate upward or downward by up to 10% depending on actual circumstances.

For enterprises handling real estate transaction procedures during restructuring, reorganization, or liquidation, real estate transaction agencies shall waive the real estate transaction service fees. For other real estate transaction services involving these enterprises, the fees shall be charged at 70% of the original fee standards.

In addition, asset valuation agencies provide valuation services related to corporate restructuring, reform, liquidation, and mortgage. Accounting firms offer annual financial statement audits and verification of registered capital for companies undergoing restructuring, reform, or liquidation. Tax agency services include assisting companies with tax registration, applying for and verifying tax qualification, and filing tax returns on their behalf. Environmental impact consulting firms provide environmental impact advisory services to enterprises, while environmental monitoring agencies offer specialized technical services to enterprises. All these services are charged at 70% of the original standard fee rates.

For enterprise-related service fees that are currently not subject to government pricing but have drawn strong complaints from businesses, the government will either impose government pricing or adopt temporary price intervention measures. The duration of this measure to reduce service fees is tentatively set at one year.