Business sectors granted immunity for minor offences to aid recovery

Ti Gong

Shanghai's urban and law enforcement authorities on Friday launched a raft of reforms to fuel economic revitalization and improve the city's business environment.

These include immunity for offences that have a minor impact and are rectified swiftly in the public sanitation, construction and property management areas, the Shanghai Urban Management and Law Enforcement Bureau said.

A scaled inspection mechanism tailored to suit different levels of business credit risks will also be established under the reforms.

Businesses with a good credit record will be exempted from inspection for a certain period, and inspection frequency for those with low credit risk will be cut to prevent disrupting their normal operations.

They will not be required to submit material that can be accessed via the governments' big data platform, and the application of information technologies will be enhanced in law enforcement to promote remote inquiry via videos, and online payment of fines.

Market entities failing to pay fines on time due to financial difficulties because of the COVID-19 resurgence will be allowed to delay payment or pay by installments.

"The ecological environment along the Huangpu River and Suzhou Creek, and the Hongqiao CBD is the priority for our law enforcement in the second half of this year," said Xu Zhihu, director of the bureau, in an online discussion with the public on Friday.

"As it's the typhoon and flooding season, intensive inspections will be conducted with the highlight on housing and manufacturing safety."

From Friday, the public is able to lodge complaints via the bureau's WeChat account as part of its latest efforts to improve efficiency.