EXPENSIVE ITEMS: Due to high tariffs, Chinese consumers have to pay much more for imported goods like cosmetics, milk powder and electronic products (XINHUA)

Lowering Tariffs

A cheap, common foreign cosmetic, because of high tariffs, is numbered among luxury items in China. Imported milk powder and even jewelery share a similar situation when they come to China. China's State Administration of Taxation is now planning to cut the tariffs on these products.

It is reported that cosmetics and electronic products are charged with a tariff of more than 10 percent. As a result, greater numbers of Chinese tend to buy these products directly from overseas markets. The high tariff policy, which is meant to protect domestic products and boost the domestic market, is ultimately causing the loss of the country's revenues.

Thanks to its economic development, Chinese people's income and consumption capacity have risen. Lowering the tariffs on some imports and expanding the importing scale will make up for insufficient production capacity in China and enrich people's lives. Meanwhile, it will also stimulate domestic producers to work harder on their products in order not to be topped by foreign goods.

Qilu Evening News

Revenue Distribution

China's State Council recently decided that from this year on, the proportion of revenue of central state-owned enterprises (SOEs) submitted to the state will be raised, and the number of SOEs will be increased.

The public hopes the huge amount of revenue from SOEs will be spent on livelihood improvement programs. But the dividend distribution list of the State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission of the State Council is disappointing. Since 2008, 68 percent of the central SOEs' operations budget has been spent on enterprise registration and reorganization, 6 percent on poverty reduction and only 1 percent or less for social security and improving the people's livelihoods.

Central SOEs' wealth by nature belongs to all of society. They are not supposed to retain the lion's share of corporate profits for themselves. If these enterprises' dividend is used in the fields such as education, health care and rural areas development, the domestic consumption will be spurred, which will in turn lead the economy in a good direction.

The Central Government needs to work out a plan for a more reasonable distribution of central SOEs' dividend, in order to gradually increase the proportion of these money in the field related with people's life. This is also a matter of social fairness and justice.

Qilu Evening News

Workers' Health

It was recently found 137 workers in one of Apple Inc.'s touch screen suppliers in Suzhou, east China's Jiangsu Province, were poisoned by hexyl hydride, also called n-hexane. Meanwhile 37 suppliers of Apple have been found to have problems related to workers' health. These statistics undoubtedly reveal the hidden dangers behind Apple's rapid profit growth.

After the Suzhou poisoning incident, the relevant government departments punished the relevant suppliers, and workers who had been poisoned were also compensated. But it's more important to rule out deficiencies in China's current occupational disease prevention and control mechanisms. In this case, it is Apple's supplier that violated the Law on Prevention and Control of Occupational Diseases, but is Apple also required to take accountability? Is a one-time disability compensation really the best method to deal with such incidents? Besides, if similar chronic diseases occur in the future, who can the workers turn to? The Management Committee of the Suzhou Industrial Park issued a notice last year, demanding electronic companies in the park abandon using hexyl hydride and the companies involved were required to sign a letter of commitment. But a tragedy finally happened. How should the loopholes in the supervision system be corrected?

With occupational diseases, the key is for relevant departments to do a good job on the daily basis. For example, they should pay regular visits to enterprises to check work environments and demand improvements if hidden risks are found.

Every time an occupational disease-related incident breaks out, the damaged health of the workers is actually a stark warning. These warnings should be taken seriously and continual efforts should be made to improve the occupational disease prevention and control mechanism.

Workers' Daily

Indebted Railways

China's National Audit Office said, by the end of 2009, China's Ministry of Railways had a total debt of 1.3 trillion yuan ($194 billion). The office also said, from 2014, the ministry will face rapidly growing debt repayment pressure. For these reasons, the ministry has to try to save money. But the current wave of high-speed railway construction demands a lot of money. How to collect sufficient capital for big investment? People are worrying that the price of train tickets would be increased.

Passengers might have already discovered that during the 2011 Spring Festival travel tickets for common trains were more difficult to obtain than before. Sometimes, people have to choose high-speed trains, which are more expensive.

The investments in high-speed railway have been huge and recovering the cost will take a long time. Originally, high-speed railways were expected to offer better and more convenient services to passengers, but it seems the result will be that most passengers cannot afford it.

How to ensure people can afford convenient train travel at the same time with the large scale of railway construction is a question the ministry needs to think about. If the ministry is financially incapable of constructing too many high-speed railways, will it just slow down the pace or reduce the scale?

Zhujiang Evening News