According to a report by Xinhua News Agency on September 9, the Ministry of Finance revealed on the 8th that five new energy vehicle manufacturers, including Suzhou Jim West, intended to defraud the state financial subsidy of over 1 billion yuan. The industry said that this was the first time that the government cracked down on new energy vehicle fraud.
As a strategic emerging industry determined by the state, the development of new energy vehicles still needs government support, but how to make comprehensive use of various incentive policies has become the focus of social attention in recent years. In particular, the problem of fraudulent subsidies has become more and more serious in recent years. According to public media reports, Li Keqiang, Premier of the State Council of the People’s Republic of China issued instructions on the supervision report on the promotion and application of new energy vehicles in July this year, demanding that fraudulent subsidies be severely punished and relevant systems be improved.
Falsely reporting information about more than a thousand vehicles with the intention of defrauding more than 200 million yuan.
The Beijing Morning Post reported that since 2009, the central government has subsidized the promotion and application of new energy vehicles. By the end of 2015, the central government had arranged a total of 33.435 billion yuan in subsidy funds. Fiscal and tax support policies have promoted the development of new energy vehicles, but they have also brought new problems.
"With the continuous expansion of industrial scale and the rapid increase in the number of promotion, individual enterprises are driven by interests, defrauding and illegally obtaining financial subsidies in violation of relevant laws and regulations, seriously disrupting the market order and infringing on the legitimate rights and interests of law-abiding enterprises in R&D and production of new energy vehicles," said the relevant person in charge of the Ministry of Finance.
In order to rectify the market order, in early 2016, the Ministry of Finance launched a special inspection for 90 new energy vehicle manufacturers. The inspection found that some enterprises were suspected of defrauding financial subsidies in violation of relevant laws and regulations, some vehicles were subsidized in declare in advance before being sold to consumers, and many vehicles were idle after receiving subsidies. The Ministry of Finance also publicly exposed five typical cases.
According to the news released by the Information Office of the Ministry of Finance on September 8, in order to rectify the industry order, strictly enforce financial and economic laws and regulations, and respond to social concerns, the General Office of the State Council organized inspections. In early 2016, the Ministry of Finance organized forces to conduct special inspections on 90 major new energy vehicle manufacturers, involving a total of 401,000 new energy vehicles that have received and applied for subsidies from the central government in 2013-2015, and randomly selected the operating status of 133,000 new energy vehicles that have been sold.
The inspection found that some enterprises were suspected of defrauding financial subsidies in violation of relevant laws and regulations, some vehicles were subsidized in declare in advance before being sold to consumers, and many vehicles were idle after receiving subsidies.
(1)Suzhou Jim West Bus Manufacturing Co., Ltd.By fabricating original vouchers and records such as false material procurement, vehicle production and sales, uploading false certificates, and illegally handling motor vehicle driving licenses, the production and sales business of new energy vehicles was fabricated, and 1,131 new energy vehicles were falsely declared to be sold in 2015, involving 261.56 million yuan of central financial subsidies.
Suzhou Jim West Bus Manufacturing Co., Ltd. became the first company that was exposed in the investigation, and it was also a serious one. The Paper once reported that Suzhou Jim West Bus Manufacturing Co., Ltd. insisted that it did not cheat even after it was publicly exposed by CCTV in March this year.
According to the data of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, in the first half of 2015, the company only reported the certificates of 25 vehicles, but in December, it reported nearly 3,000 vehicles in just one month. The obviously abnormal data made the investigation team composed of four ministries focus on it first. After entering the field investigation in Jim West, it was found that the company could not tell the clear whereabouts of the cars it produced, and confirmed the fact that there were false transactions to defraud the state subsidies. Based on the more than 2,900 certificates submitted in December last year, according to the subsidy policy for new energy vehicles implemented by the state in 2013-2015, the pure electric buses produced by Jim West can get a state subsidy of 300,000 yuan/vehicle, plus a local subsidy of 1:1. Jim West can easily get a subsidy of 100 million yuan a month by forging trading contracts and sales data.
(2)Jinlong United Automobile Industry (Suzhou) Co., Ltd.Among the new energy vehicles that applied for the central financial subsidy funds in 2015, 1,683 vehicles had not been completed by the end of 2015, but in 2015, they applied for motor vehicle driving licenses in advance and applied for the central financial subsidy funds of 519.21 million yuan.
Although Suzhou Jim West Bus Manufacturing Co., Ltd. is the most serious case of malicious fraud, Suzhou Jinlong has the largest amount of fraud. It is worth noting that as early as March 30 this year, Suzhou Jinlong issued an obituary saying that its general manager Wu Wenwen died of illness on the afternoon of March 29. At that time, Suzhou Jinlong insiders revealed that Wu Wenwen was killed by jumping off a building because "the pressure is too great to rule out the possibility of suffering from depression". Wu Wenwen, a native of Sanming, Fujian, was born in 1970 and died at the age of 46. He has been the general manager of Suzhou Jinlong since January 1999, when he was only 27 years old. After serving as the general manager for more than 17 years, he committed suicide on the job. At that time, insiders said that it was not ruled out that the pressure was too high due to the fraudulent incident and he jumped to his death. It is also widely said that Wu Wenwen suffers from depression, which involves national subsidies for new energy vehicles.
(3)Shenzhen Wuzhou long automobile co., ltdAmong the new energy vehicles that applied for the central financial subsidy funds in 2015, 154 vehicles had not been completed by the end of 2015, but in 2015, they applied for motor vehicle driving licenses in advance and applied for the central financial subsidy funds of 55.74 million yuan.
(4)Chery Wanda Guizhou Bus Company LimitedAmong the new energy vehicles that applied for the central financial subsidy funds in 2015, 327 vehicles had not been completed by the end of 2015, but in 2015, they applied for motor vehicle driving licenses in advance and applied for the central financial subsidy funds of 98.1 million yuan.
(5)Henan Shaolin bus co., ltdAmong the new energy vehicles that applied for the central financial subsidy in 2015, 252 vehicles had not been completed by the end of 2015, but in 2015, they applied for motor vehicle driving licenses in advance and applied for the central financial subsidy of 75.6 million yuan.
According to the Oriental Morning Post, in addition to the above-mentioned five car companies, many car companies were exposed by CCTV for allegedly "cheating", namely Shaanxi Tongjia Automobile Co., Ltd., chongqing lifan Passenger Car Co., Ltd., Jiangsu Land Ark New Energy Electric Vehicle Co., Ltd., Guohong Automobile Co., Ltd., Jiangsu Aoxin New Energy Automobile Co., Ltd., Wuhu Baoqi Automobile Manufacturing Co., Ltd., chongqing lifan Automobile Co., Ltd. and Jinhua Youth Automobile Manufacturing Co., Ltd. According to the statistics of the certificate provided by the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, the monthly output of these car companies in December 2015 has exceeded 50% of the annual output, and the annual output is more than 1,000 vehicles.
According to the Ministry of Finance, the reason why many enterprises are eager to apply for subsidies in violation of regulations before leaving the factory is that the amount of financial subsidies is high in 2015, and the subsidy standard will be lowered from 2016. Therefore, these car companies are questioned to catch up with the last opportunity of the subsidy policy for new energy vehicles in 2013-2015 and try their best to make a fortune.
Cracking down on fraudulent compensation will never be soft. The problem model will withdraw from the national catalogue.
Regarding the fraudulent behavior of new energy vehicles, many relevant departments, including the Ministry of Finance and the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, have repeatedly said that they will never be soft.
In response to the five typical cases mentioned above, the Information Office of the Ministry of Finance announced the handling opinions on the 8 th:
Suzhou Jim West Bus Manufacturing Co., Ltd., with the most serious case of malicious fraud, was disqualified from the central financial subsidy. All vehicles produced in 2015 were not subsidized by the central government, and all the central financial subsidy funds pre-allocated in 2015 were recovered. At the same time, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology cancelled its vehicle production qualification.
Four enterprises, including Jinlong United Automobile Industry (Suzhou) Co., Ltd., Shenzhen Wuzhoulong Automobile Co., Ltd., Henan Shaolin Bus Co., Ltd. and Chery Wanda Guizhou Bus Co., Ltd., recovered the funds pre-allocated by the central financial subsidy for 2,416 illegally licensed vehicles in 2015, and imposed a fine of 50% of the problem amount in accordance with the relevant provisions of the Regulations on Punishment of Financial Violations. At the same time, since 2016, the above four enterprises have been disqualified from central financial subsidies. The Ministry of Industry and Information Technology has removed its problematic vehicles from the Catalogue of Recommended Vehicles for Demonstration and Application of Energy-saving and New Energy Vehicles.
In addition, other new energy vehicles produced and sold by the above four enterprises in 2015 will be re-declared after strict examination by the local regulatory authorities one by one, and vehicles without problems can continue to be subsidized by the central government according to the original policy. When the above four enterprises resume the implementation of the central financial subsidy policy depends on the rectification of local governments and enterprises. At that time, the Ministry of Finance, the Ministry of Science and Technology, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, and the Development and Reform Commission will jointly check and accept, and the financial subsidy policy can be resumed only after the acceptance is reported to the State Council for approval, but the qualification for pre-allocating financial subsidy funds will not be restored.
The person in charge of the Ministry of Finance said that it will inform the local governments of the provinces and cities where the problem enterprises are located together with relevant departments, and ask the local governments to further verify and investigate the responsibilities of relevant regulatory departments and staff. Those suspected of violating the law and discipline will be handed over to the local administrative supervision departments, public security departments and procuratorial organs for handling. The behavior of related enterprises to defraud local financial subsidies shall be handled by the local authorities with reference to the above principles.
Improve the entry threshold in time and take multiple measures to support the healthy development of the industry
Under the guidance of continuous policies, China’s new energy vehicle industry has developed rapidly. In 2011, the number of new energy vehicles in China was less than 1,000, and in 2015, it exceeded 400,000. China has become the world’s largest producer and consumer of new energy vehicles.
However, as pointed out by some people in the industry, financial subsidies are only one aspect of supporting industrial policies, and they must be guided by many aspects, including taxation and government procurement. The time for financial subsidies should not be too long, because relying solely on subsidies will make many enterprises ignore the long-term planning for developing investment and technological progress.
According to People’s Daily, as early as the beginning of this year,Lou Jiwei, Minister of Finance, once said that the original intention of the consumption subsidy policy is to cultivate the primary market. Practice has proved that this policy is effective. However, long-term implementation of consumer subsidies makes enterprises prone to "dependence" on government policies, lacking the motivation and pressure for technology research and development and product upgrading; The industry is prone to low-level blind expansion and new overcapacity. Therefore, it is necessary to adjust the subsidy policy and establish the selection mechanism and elimination mechanism.
New energy bus manufacturers are the hardest hit areas for "cheating"
According to the Oriental Morning Post, due to the high subsidy, new energy bus manufacturers are the hardest hit areas.
At present, plug-in hybrid buses receive a unified subsidy of 250,000 yuan/vehicle, 6-8 meters pure electric buses receive a subsidy of 300,000 yuan/vehicle, 8-10 meters pure electric buses receive a subsidy of 400,000 yuan/vehicle, and the subsidy of more than 10 meters is 500,000 yuan/vehicle. Together with the local government’s 1:1 supporting subsidy, the maximum subsidy that a new energy bus can receive reaches 1 million yuan.
In contrast, there are few subsidies for passenger cars. At present, the policy is to subsidize 25,000 yuan for pure electric vehicles with a cruising range of 100-150 kilometers, 45,000 yuan for pure electric vehicles with a cruising range of 150-250 kilometers, and 55,000 yuan for pure electric vehicles with a cruising range of more than 250 kilometers. If local subsidies are superimposed, a pure electric passenger car can get a maximum subsidy of 110,000 yuan.
Cui Dongshu, secretary-general of the National Passenger Car Market Information Association, once said, "In the new energy vehicles, 80% of the subsidies are replenished to passenger cars, and the remaining 10% are subsidized to special vehicles. Passenger cars don’t take much money, only a few billion yuan, and passenger cars get at least 80 billion yuan."
In the face of these fraudulent compensation phenomena, Miao Wei, Minister of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, has publicly stated before: "In some areas, there is indeed a phenomenon of fraudulent compensation by a small number of enterprises, and we are still conducting verification nationwide. But no matter how many cars there are, they are found to be absolutely disposed of together, and these enterprises can’t run. "
Overcapacity is a hidden worry.
At present, the production boom of new energy vehicles continues. According to the data of the National Bureau of Statistics, in April this year, 47,000 new energy vehicles were produced, a year-on-year increase of 135%. From January to April, it produced 154,000 vehicles, with a year-on-year increase of 92.5%.
According to the report of Yangguang. com, according to incomplete statistics, there were nearly ten news about the construction and expansion of new energy automobile industrial parks in various places in May. Coupled with the information on the construction of the new energy automobile industrial park that has been released one after another, since 2015, as many as 30 new energy automobile projects have been intentionally built or under construction all over the country, with a total investment of more than 100 billion yuan. Most of these new energy vehicle construction projects exist in the form of "new energy vehicle industrial park" and are blooming everywhere. The state subsidy for new energy vehicles will be reduced year by year and will be completely cancelled in 2021.
Industry insiders worry that behind the continuous expansion of new energy vehicle production capacity, it has not been supported by technological breakthroughs and capital chains. Over time, overcapacity is inevitable.
(Observer Network integrates Beijing Morning Post, Xinhuanet, People’s Daily, Ministry of Finance website, Oriental Morning Post, The Paper, Yangguang. com, etc.)