Chinese authorities has recently announced a new payment deferral of social insurance premiums for the sectors severely hit by the COVID-19 outbreaks.
This is as a result of the latest move to alleviate the financial burden of these industries.
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The country had planned to temporarily defer the premium payments of old-age insurance, unemployment insurance, and workplace injury insurance for the hard-hit catering.
Also, those in these categories; retail, tourism, civil aviation, highway, waterway and railway transportation industries to be deferred.
This is according to a statement jointly released by the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security and the State Taxation Administration (STA).
Individual businesses and workers in flexible employment that had difficulties in paying basic old-age insurance premiums in 2022 were allowed to defer the payments until the end of 2023.
Zheng Wenmin, an official with the STA told a news conference on Thursday.
The policies are expected to pump up over 80 billion yuan (about 11.89 billion dollars) for firms and individuals.
They are to play an underpinning role in relieving cash strains for smaller firms and stabilising employment, Zheng said.
