Since the new coronavirus broke out in China, China's three carriages to promote economic-- investment, consumption and export -- have all been affected to varying degrees. According to data released by the national bureau of statistics on April 17, China's GDP in the first quarter of 2020 decreased 6.8% year on year, which is the first negative growth since China adopted the System of National Accounts in 1992...
The local Chinese government rack their brains for making measures to stimulate local markets, and the coupon is necessary, which have been issued in several Chinese cities. Have you made an appointment?
But, what is coupon?
The coupon discussed in this article is not commercial promotional coupon but the subsidized coupon issued by the government which refers to a special coupon or pay order issued by the government to stimulate consumption market or offer social relief in a special period with the public finance as the source of funds.
Could coupons be used as money directly?
No! Although the coupons mostly belong to vouchers, the former have the most essential difference with the RMB -- use restrictions. Coupon generally need to be used in the specified period and industry, or even in specific businesses, and can only be one-time consumption with no change, so coupons are completely different from RMB.
Recently, someone tried to use the coupon as money directly, making a few misunderstanding.
On April 8, the finance bureau of Huaihua, Hunan Province, issued a notice that deducting an amount from teachers' salaries to promote the amount of coupons, and the cadres should use their coupons before May 5 in Huaihua, making the crowd being in an uproar. Thinking considerately, they are not emotional because someone prefer to save money rather than spend money? According to the labor law and the temporary provisions of wage payment, laborer has the right to get the salary of full amount according to the labor contract, and salary shall be paid with legal tender, but not be in kind or negotiable securities.It is understandable that government agencies are eager to restore the prosperity of the past, but coupons will stimulate consumption effectively only if they recognize the essence of the subsidy of coupons, ensure legitimacy and compliance, and focus on crucial points accurately.
It’s reported that in the face of nearly 1.7 billion coupons issued by the Hangzhou government, some businesses seem to be trying to cash out.
What is cashing out? For example, the runner named ‘earn more’ invite one named ‘bad guy’ to cash out of 50 minus 20 coupons held by the bad guy. As a result, the bad guy pays 30 RMB to the earn more’s account, and that account actually receives 50 RMB, of which 20 RMB is the amount of coupons subsidized by the government. The earn more will return 40 RMB to the bad guy after deducting 10 RMB reward fee, so finally both of them respectively will cash out 10 RMB.
That sounds like cheating? Hey, that really may be suspected of fraud!
In 2018, a restaurant owner surnamed Situ in Shanghai was approved of arrested by the People's Procuratorate of Hongkou for the crime of fraud after he used the preferential activity of the first order of 15 RMB red envelope in Eleme(a take-out app) to brush(placing fake order) for many times and cashed out more than 77,000 RMB. Similarly, in the same year, Huang in Guangxi, brushed in one activity of Taobao(a shopping app) and cashed out the red envelopes, making a profit of 51580 RMB. Pingnan Court determined that Wang shall be convicted of the crime of fraud because he fabricated facts to defraud another out of money for the purpose of illegal possession, getting a huge amounts of money, and sentenced him to prison for four years and three months as well as fine 10000 RMB!
Although what was cashed out in the above case is commercial red envelope, the above acts are the same as cashing out the coupons. The earn more aforementioned, for the sake of illegally possessing the government subsidy of 20 RMB, plotted with the bad guy to fabricate consumption fact. Then, the related funding platform authorized by the government such as Alipay, WeChat paid subsidies to ‘earn more’ based on the fictitious consumption fact, which makes the bad guy’s subsidy qualification of 20 RMB into 20 RMB cash. The ‘earn more’ shall be convicted of the crime of fraud and bear punishment if it meet the standard of ‘relatively large’. Here, the relevant government departments are suggested to strengthen supervision and management of using coupons, and corporate with Alipay, WeChat and other payment platforms, to prevent cash fraud, ensuring that the coupons this good policy can be implemented in place and accurately supported!
The issuance of hundreds of millions of coupons all around the country reflects China's great power to subsidize national and care about national’s livelihood, bearing the country's good wish to stimulate consumption and restore the economy! Let us spend the coupon on eating and shopping happily to promote economic development ~!
