On September 10, the General Office of the State Council issued a circular on strengthening the management of the problem of difficult repayment of small and medium-sized enterprises. To the people's governments of all
provinces, autonomous regions and municipalities directly under the Central Government, all ministries and commissions of the State Council, and all institutions directly under the State Council:
With the consent of the State Council, The relevant matters are hereby notified as follows:
1. Improve the payment rules
of industry accounts (1) Define the reasonable account period in different industries. The competent departments of various industries will embed the requirement of timely payment of accounts into industry management and strengthen its implementation. To formulate and improve the regulations on the management of settlement and payment in the field of the industry, and clarify the key elements such as the starting point of the account period, the payment method and process, the standard and time limit for the inspection and acceptance of goods and services (or the settlement of project completion), and the longest payment period (hereinafter referred to as the four key elements of payment). While respecting trading habits, large enterprises in the industry and their wholly-owned or holding subsidiaries (hereinafter referred to as large enterprises) should be guided to limit the maximum payment period for small and medium-sized enterprises to 60 days. Formulate, improve and promote the use of contract model text, and implement the four key elements of payment. We should refine the criteria for identifying the dishonest behavior of enterprises in arrears and clarify the disciplinary measures. To formulate the supporting provisions of the Regulations on Guaranteeing the Payment of Small and Medium-sized Enterprises. If the payment method is not specified in the contract, the organs, institutions and large enterprises shall use cash to pay the accounts of small and medium-sized enterprises, and shall not replace the payment with commercial bills or electronic vouchers of accounts receivable (hereinafter referred to as e lectronic vouchers).
(2) Promote leading enterprises to take the lead in fulfilling the "60-day cash payment commitment". Promulgate a timely payment initiative for large enterprises in the industry, and guide large enterprises, especially leading enterprises, to take the lead in issuing and fulfilling their commitment to pay accounts to small and medium-sized enterprises in cash within 60 days from the date of delivery of goods, projects and services. To urge large enterprises to keep accounts strictly in accordance with the accounting standards of enterprises, and to correct such acts as not signing contracts, not issuing invoices, and not confirming the relationship between creditor's rights and debts. To guide relevant associations to carry out self-discipline management of timely payment and formulate self-discipline norms for timely payment.
2. Strengthen the supervision
of payment behavior of large enterprises (3) Conduct interviews and rectification. Establish and improve the monitoring mechanism of accounts of large enterprises, focusing on large enterprises with large accounts payable and abundant cash assets. For large enterprises that deliberately lengthen the account period, the competent industry authorities or regulatory authorities, the People's Bank of China and the General Administration of Market Supervision shall conduct joint interviews and urge rectification, and the relevant local people's governments shall cooperate in the work of supervision and rectification. Enterprises that refuse to make corrections after the interview will be jointly punished in accordance with the law and regulations; those identified as serious dishonesty will be publicized on the "Credit China" website and punished for dishonesty in accordance with the law and regulations.
(4) Strictly enforce the law against unfair competition. Speeding up the refinement of the law enforcement guidelines of Article 15 of the Anti-Unfair Competition Law, dealing with relevant complaints and reports according to law, abusing the dominant position of large enterprises by blurring the starting point of the account period, delaying the inspection and acceptance of goods and services (or the settlement of completed projects), using commercial bills of exchange or electronic vouchers to extend the payment period in disguised form, etc. Public exposure of typical cases forms a deterrent.
(5) Improve the requirements for information disclosure of accounts. We will refine and improve the rules for information disclosure of listed companies, and explicitly require listed companies with accounts payable reaching a certain scale to disclose major payment methods, average account periods, commercial bills of exchange, and the opening of electronic vouchers. Enterprises issuing corporate bonds or debt financing instruments of non-financial enterprises in the exchange market and the inter-bank market are required to strengthen the disclosure of account information. Guiding listed companies and bond issuing enterprises with long account period and high proportion of non-cash payment to gradually reduce the account period, increase the proportion of cash payment and pay in time. We will accelerate the improvement of the rules for publicizing annual report information such as overdue accounts payable of large enterprises, and intensify supervision and law enforcement.
(6) Give full play to the exemplary role of central and state-owned enterprises in timely payment. The central SOEs took the lead in defining the four key elements of payment in the contract, taking the lead in implementing the requirements for the management of electronic voucher business and electronic voucher service platform, adopting cash payment for all small and medium-sized enterprises, and maintaining a reasonable proportion of cash payment for large enterprises. The breach of contract and arrears shall be found and liquidated together, and the accountability shall be seriously pursued in accordance with the law and regulations. If a large enterprise subcontracts a project of a central enterprise, the central enterprise shall require the general contractor to pay the subcontractor in time and maintain the same proportion of cash payment in the contract. The requirement of timely payment of accounts is embedded in the compliance management system of central enterprises. The payment of accounts payable, the opening of commercial bills and electronic vouchers by central enterprises and subsidiaries at all levels will be included in the supervision system, and the treasury system will be used to implement penetrating supervision. Local state-owned assets supervision departments shall supervise enterprises with reference to the above requirements.
3. Standardize the management of non-cash payment instruments
(7) Standardize the management of electronic voucher business. Reduce the maximum payment period of electronic vouchers to 6 months, the electronic voucher service platform shall not open new electronic vouchers with a payment period of more than 6 months, and commercial banks and commercial factoring companies shall not provide financing for electronic vouchers with a payment period of more than 6 months. Monitor large enterprises that overuse commercial bills and electronic vouchers, and urge them to reduce the business scale of commercial bills and electronic vouchers. Large enterprises are required not to force or disguise small and medium-sized enterprises to finance accounts receivable from their affiliated commercial factoring companies.
(8) Strictly supervise the electronic voucher service platform. The electronic voucher service platform shall strictly implement various compliance requirements such as filing management, voucher duration and fee expression, and connect the operating data to the Shanghai Bill Exchange in full, so that the Shanghai Bill Exchange can monitor the opening of commercial bills and electronic vouchers of large enterprises across institutions and in full. If the commercial bills and electronic vouchers of large enterprises are overdue, they shall be disclosed by the Shanghai Bill Exchange and the electronic voucher service platform respectively. The electronic voucher service platform stops providing new electronic voucher services to enterprises with overdue payments.
4. Strengthen the efficiency of capital transmission and financing support
(9) Smooth the chain of capital transmission. The full amount of government procurement projects shall be paid in cash, and the timely payment shall be included in the scope of supervision of government procurement projects; the supervision of the whole process of government investment project funds from delivery to payment shall be strengthened, and the owner unit shall give priority to cash payment and promote the general contractor of the project to pay no less than same proportion of cash to the subcontractor in a timely manner. The government investment projects that have been completed but not settled should complete the financial final accounts and pay the project funds as soon as possible, so as to promote the general contractor to pay the subcontractors as soon as possible and promote the wage payment of migrant workers. We will strengthen supervision over the implementation of the Regulations on the Management of State-owned Assets in Administrative Institutions, and strictly implement the deadline requirements for the completion of construction projects from acceptance and acceptance to financial final accounts. Institutions should strictly implement the legal payment deadline for purchasing goods, projects and services from small and medium-sized enterprises. The national complaint platform for default and arrears of small and medium-sized enterprises found that the areas and industries with prominent arrears should be supervised and rectified within a time limit, and notified by regions and industries when necessary.
(Ten) increase supporting financing support. For large enterprises that have achieved remarkable results in reducing the duration of accounts payable and reducing the scale, we should strengthen the supply of financing and give support in terms of loans and bond issuance. Commercial banks should be guided to support large enterprises to replace accounts payable through loans and bond issuance financing under the premise of controllable risks, and to pay cash to small and medium-sized enterprises upstream and downstream in a timely manner. Explore the use of the evaluation results of SMEs'specialized, special and new development for financing and credit enhancement, and guide financial institutions to strengthen their support for high-quality SMEs. Relevant departments
in all regions should strengthen cooperation in their work, strengthen the linkage between the upper and lower levels, consolidate their responsibilities and continue to advance, adhere to both guidance and correction and law enforcement and accountability, promote the overall improvement of the problem of difficult repayment of small and medium-sized enterprises, and create a good ecological environment for the development of large and medium-sized enterprises and mutual benefit and win-win situation. The special class for clearing up arrears of enterprise accounts should strengthen overall coordination, guidance, supervision and follow-up evaluation, and promote the implementation of various tasks. Ask for instructions and report important situations in time according to procedures. General Office
of
the State Council September 3
, 2026
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