On the morning of March 5, the fifth session of the 13th National People's Congress opened in the Great Hall of the people. Premier Li Keqiang delivered a government work report. In the government work report, guide large platform enterprises to reduce charges and reduce the burden on small and medium-sized merchants
It is not the first time to guide platform enterprises to reduce fees in the government work report. In last year's government work report, when it comes to stabilizing and expanding consumption, it was proposed to guide platform enterprises to reasonably reduce merchant service fees.
Compared with last year's formulation, this year added "reducing the burden of small and medium-sized merchants" on the basis of "guiding large platform enterprises to reduce charges"
Li Yongjian, a researcher of the Chinese Academy of Finance and economics, pointed out that since the 21st century, the action fee of the Chinese Academy of Finance and economics has not been reduced enough
"It is expected that this year's platform can help small and medium-sized enterprises that are really facing business difficulties to reduce fees and costs, and truly reflect the effect of fee reduction on small, medium-sized and micro enterprises and merchants." Li Yongjian said.
raise the platform again and reduce the fees of enterprises
For some time, the topic of charging merchants by large platform enterprises has attracted much social attention.
Li Yongjian believes that it is necessary for platform enterprises to reduce charges from the perspective of industry trend, with the increasing growth of platform enterprises, small and medium-sized merchants can no longer operate on the platform with low threshold and low flow cost, and the operating cost is increasing. At the same time, as the epidemic is still in the state of local dissemination, some small and medium-sized merchants also have some practical difficulties in their operation.
Therefore, it is not difficult to understand the call to guide large platform enterprises to reduce charges. "Such platform enterprises make a lot of profits by relying on their own platforms, but the small and medium-sized merchants on the platform have business difficulties. Therefore, needs to reduce the charges of platform enterprises in a guiding way, so as to relieve the difficulties of small and medium-sized enterprises to a certain extent. " Li Yongjian said.
Pan Helin, CO director and researcher of digital economy and financial innovation research center of International United Business School of Zhejiang University, believes that the relevant contents of government work report are not only the performance of seeking welfare for the people, but also the embodiment of the government optimizing the market competition environment and promoting the healthy development of the economy
"On the one hand, the purpose of promoting the platform to reduce the service fee is to reduce the operating cost of small and medium-sized merchants, reduce the difficulty of starting a business for small and medium-sized merchants, and give more benefits to small and medium-sized merchants; on the other hand, it is also to standardize the pricing of the platform and prevent the platform from making unfair pricing by using the dominant position of the market." Pan Helin analyzed and said to the 21st Century Business Herald reporter.
It should be noted that in this year's government work report, in addition to the expression of "guiding large platform enterprises to reduce charges", it also proposed to "reduce the burden of small and medium-sized merchants".
Li Yongjian also called for accurate targeting of small and medium-sized enterprises to reduce costs, so as to really help small and medium-sized enterprises with operating difficulties. In his view, in the past, the platform continued to promote the reduction of service fees by reducing service fee standards, but this did not clearly distinguish between large chain enterprises and small, medium and micro enterprises on the platform.
From this perspective, Li Yongjian expects the platform to provide accurate, targeted, personalized, structured and differentiated support when reducing costs this year.
platform enterprises reduce fees and speed up
In terms of guiding platform enterprises to reduce fees, relevant departments have taken actions.
In March 2021, 28 departments including the national development and Reform Commission studied and formulated the implementation plan for accelerating the cultivation of new consumption (hereinafter referred to as the "plan"), which specifically mentioned the need to reduce platform transaction and payment costs guide takeout, online car hailing, e-commerce and other network platforms, reasonably optimize the Commission and other expenses of small and medium-sized enterprise merchants and individuals using the platform, and use technology to promote the operators in the platform to reduce costs and increase efficiency
In January this year, nine departments including the national development and Reform Commission jointly issued several opinions on promoting the standardized, healthy and sustainable development of platform economy, which proposed to guide platform enterprises to reasonably determine the payment of settlement, platform Commission and other service fees, and give certain traffic support to high-quality small and micro merchants. The service charges of the platform shall be consistent with the quality and price, fair and reasonable, and shall be negotiated and fully communicated with the operators in the platform on an equal basis, without damaging the order of fair competition.
In February, 14 departments including the national development and Reform Commission issued several policies on promoting the recovery and development of difficult industries in the service industry (hereinafter referred to as "several policies"), which mentioned that Internet platform enterprises such as takeout should be guided to further reduce the service fee standard of catering merchants and reduce the operating costs of relevant catering enterprises.
In this regard, mainstream platform enterprises continue to launch their own fee reduction policies in the near future, and obviously focus on small and medium-sized merchants.
On March 1, meituan's official wechat released the article "we should do these six things well for small and medium-sized merchants", announcing the launch of six assistance measures, including halving the Commission of merchants with difficulties in epidemic areas, capping the Commission of 1 yuan per order, capping the Commission of small and medium-sized merchants with operating difficulties by 5%, realizing transparent fee rate nationwide coverage in 2022 Provide 100000 "take out housekeeper service" places for small and medium-sized merchants in difficulty free of charge, give cloud printers and meal treasure to new merchants in epidemic areas, and hold 100 merchant seminars nationwide in 2022 to improve service level and solve practical problems, trying to help small and medium-sized merchants in terms of cost reduction and income increase.
On March 2, the takeout platform hungry Yao announced that it would invest 20 million yuan in the first batch to help businesses rescue, and all businesses in medium and high-risk areas would receive hungry Yao Commission relief. Specifically, hungry will implement Commission reduction and exemption for all catering businesses in 87 districts and counties listed as medium and high risk areas from January to February 2022, without any threshold or additional review by the platform.
Meanwhile, businesses in medium and high-risk areas newly added after March 1 will also enjoy the same Commission reduction measures. In addition, businesses will continue to be closed for the protection of their rights and interests due to the epidemic situation.
On March 3, the wechat payment platform released the notice on further reducing the payment handling charges of small and micro merchants to customers. The notice said that from September 1, 2021 to September 30, 2024, preferential payment service fees will be implemented for qualified small and micro businesses, including 10% discount on payment service fees of small and micro enterprises, individual industrial and commercial households and individuals with business behavior, as well as reduction and exemption of zero withdrawal service fees of individual payment accounts with business behavior.
"The of the current platform has indeed reduced charges, which has benefited small and medium-sized merchants, especially those affected by the epidemic, which is worthy of recognition." Pan Helin believes that, however, he pointed out that current charging proportion of the platform needs to be further clear and transparent, and the formation of charging proportion needs to establish a long-term pricing mechanism. "Only by forming a complete set of mechanisms for charging pricing and charging, can merchants be clear at a glance and finally solve the problem of excessive charging."
