SQUEEZE: Overdevelopment of high-grade housing will surely cut back on space available for ordinary houses and have an effect on the environment. This is what has happened in Yunnan Province (XINHUA)

A Tax for Fairness

Recently, southwest China's Chongqing Municipality issued a document on real estate market regulation. The document indicates property tax is to be levied on high-grade houses.

There has recently been a passion for the construction of high-grade homes among property developers. This market provides houses for family use and also for speculative investment. Because of the huge profit margins of high-grade houses, greater numbers of investors are preparing to enter this market. As a result prices will surge.

Over-development of high-grade housing is not suitable for China's national conditions. This category of houses, especially luxurious villas, surely occupies much more land than ordinary houses. In a country of limited land resources, when land, in most cases the best, is disproportionately allocated to expensive luxury houses, it's encroaching on ordinary people's rights.

High-grade houses are usually located in suburbs. To develop in these areas undoubtedly damages the local environment. Besides, natural resources belonging to the public are transformed into rich people's private property.

Many Chinese families are eager to possess a house, or an apartment, but even if it's an ordinary shelter, they can't afford it. But, meanwhile many high-grade homes are empty, and are not for living in but for investment.

The imbalance between the high-grade and middle and low-grade house markets is adding to the existing problems in the property market. That's why regulatory policies have to be adopted to control the situation. Even if property taxes are unable to rein in rich families' desires for high-grade houses, at least the public should be compensated through the taxes.

Dazhong Daily

Put It Into Practice

China will cut taxes on low and middle-income individuals and most Chinese companies in a large-scale tax reform during the 12th Five-Year Plan. Personal income tax reform is expected to come as early as the beginning of 2011. This round of tax reform will not raise the cutoff point, but cut the rate.

When the country's national tax revenues keep reaching new highs year after year, reducing the tax burden so the public can benefit from development achievements is urgent. Taxation reform is not to temporarily appease people's dissatisfaction, but to help economic growth in the long run.

The principle of reducing tax burdens on low and middle-income individuals should always be followed. More importantly, authorities must get rid of the bad habit of turning to tax collection whenever economic strain occurs.

Tax cuts should never come at the cost of public products and public services. The shortage of public services and welfare is an urgent problem to be tackled during the 12th Five-Year Plan. While cutting taxes on the ordinary public, it's also important to cut government expenditure and increase taxation on monopoly state-owned enterprises.

At present, large-scale tax reduction scheme is just a plan, and it's not certain if it will really take effect. Given the miscarriage of many other excellent plans, the most important thing is to put it into practice.

Procuratorial Daily

Homeless Receive Help

Shanghai's Civil Affairs Bureau is to set up temporary refuges for winter and next spring, so the homeless can survive the cold safely. These shelters will provide food, shower services and accommodation. They will be open to receive new arrivals around the clock.

To help the homeless through winter safely is the bottom line for a civilized city. The life of a homeless person is not something that can be done away with in several days. Almost every year, vagrants somewhere freeze to death, so to make special arrangements for them during winter as Shanghai does is a good way to avoid tragedy.

Apart from government resources, social resources have been mobilized to join in the aid in the city. In bus and railway stations, subway lanes, ports and bridge caves where the homeless tend to concentrate, patrolling will be more frequent and widespread. For those who refuse to be helped, cold-proof necessities and information on aid access will be offered. Communities will offer aid consultation while police stations and urban management teams are also prepared to help. Community volunteers, especially the elderly, will go out to the streets on patrol and help.

If Shanghai, the most populous city in China, can reach this level, so can other cities, especially cities in north China, where the winter is much colder than in Shanghai. The government should pay greater attention to the poor and the frail. Skyscrapers show a city's economic level but care for the weak reflects a city's civilization level.

Qilu Evening News

Unfair Traffic Control

Fee charges have become an important measure for Beijing to cope with traffic congestion, including rises in parking and congestion fees. Higher fees will add greatly to the current cost of driving and surely many people will be forced to give up car transport.

A good public policy largely depends on its fairness. Who will be worst affected by the rising fee charges? Undoubtedly, it's middle and low-income car owners, but not the wealthy class or officials that buy cars at government expense. Gradually, downtown roads and parking lots will become the private property of the rich and the privileged. Worse still, the higher the charges, the more serious this condition will become.

But are roads and parking lots designed to be private property? Excessively high fees will mean a lot of people will be left outside. In this case, even if the streets are no longer so crowded, public resources are nevertheless unfairly distributed. No matter how limited they are, by no means should public resources be reserved for the privileged.

Is raising the fees the last straw? How about a better-developed urban bicycle network, or setting up more pedestrian streets in busy downtown areas and allocating more motor lanes exclusively to public transport? To raise fee charges when there is need is okay, but a blind belief in this sort of measure is unwise. In millions of private cars are Beijing's ordinary taxpayers and they do not deserve to be charged so severely for road use.

The Beijing News