China economy Photo: Xinhua

 China is mulling a new mix of tax and fee reductions to address hardships confronting small and micro-sized businesses and self-employed people, Premier Li Keqiang said during an inspection tour to the country’s top market regulator, the Securities Times reported Tuesday.

The development and improvement of the socialist market economy system can’t be divorced from market entities, Li said while inspecting the State Administration for Market Regulation on Monday where he presided over a symposium on fostering and strengthening market entities.

The economy is now facing new downward pressure, but the 100 million-plus market entities in China are supposed to underpin the fundamentals and resilience of the economy, the premier stated, while calling for a new tax policy mix to be drafted as well as for efforts to continue to guide financial institutions to forgo profits in a reasonable manner and support the real economy.

Specifics for the new tax and fee cuts have yet to be announced. 

Li also pledged measures to boost industrial economic operations.

In a fresh sign of growth woes, the official manufacturing purchasing managers' index (PMI) came in at 49.2 for October, down 0.4 percentage points from the previous month and contracting for the second consecutive month, mirroring waning industrial activity caused by serious electricity supply shortages.  

The Chinese economy recorded expansion of 4.9 percent in the third quarter, official data showed, moderating from previous quarters amid a power crunch and supply chain bottlenecks.