“Procedures of Shanghai Municipality on Checking Citizens’ Financial Situation” Formally Promulgated

The “Procedures of Shanghai Municipality on Checking Citizens’ Financial Situation” was adopted at the 50^th Routine Meeting of the Municipal People’s Government on July 13, 2009,  signed by Mayor Han Zheng, promulgated on July 22 by Decree No. 14, and should be effective as of this September 1. The “Procedures” was promulgated in full at Shanghai China Portal (www.shanghai.gov.cn.), Shanghai Government Legislative Information Network (www.shanghailaw.gov.cn), and Eastday Net (www.eastday.com), and would be published in full at Jie Fang Daily. 

In recent years, a series of policies on setting up systems on social relief and social welfare have been released by the State and this Municipality, which have played an important role in improving the living standard of people, especially those of low-income, perfecting social security system, and embodied the administrative ideology of people-oriented. While implementing the social relief and social welfare systems including minimum living security, medical assistance, education assistance, housing guarantee, the financial situation of citizens is an important reference factor. For a long time, when checking the citizens’ financial situation, relevant governmental departments that implement these systems usually carry out the check respectively within their system according to their own regulations, and based on the information they have, which lead to repeated construction of the checking system and information fragmentation among departments. Therefore, the “Procedures” makes clear that relevant governmental departments shall entrust the agency specialized in checking citizens’ financial situation in this Municipality to carry out investigation and check on the financial situation of those individual persons, households, or other checking objects making the application. It is necessary to, through the establishment of a unified and normalized checking system on citizens’ financial situation, promote the integration of resources and sharing of information, improve the administrative efficiency, and ensure a fair and effective social relief and social welfare system in this Municipality.

Shanghai Citizens’ Financial Situation Checking Center and the district/county checking organs are special organs responsible for the specific work of checking citizens’ financial situation in this Municipality approved to be established by the Municipal People’s Government according to the “Procedures”. The checking organs shall carry out the checking work upon the entrustment of relevant governmental departments, and the written reports made after check are the reference for relevant governmental departments in making the decision of examination and approval.

The “Procedures” clearly defines that the checking contents mainly include the checking objects’ disposable income and property. The disposable income includes wages income, net business income, property income, transfer income; the property includes physical property, monetary assets. The checking agency may check and count the wages income through investigating the employment situation and remuneration, the welfare income of all kinds, as wall as the payment of social insurance premium, housing fund, personal income tax, etc.; as for the net business income, it may be checked and counted through investigating the industry and commerce registration, the production and operation situation of enterprises or self-employed people, as well as the payment of corporate income tax; as for the property income, it may be checked and counted through investigating the interest, the stock dividend, bonus, insurance proceeds, rental income, as well as income from intellectual property rights; as for the transfer income, it may be checked and counted through investigating the drawing of the pension, the unemployment insurance benefits, the social assistance grant, the housing fund, as well as the situation of gift, compensation, and indemnity; as for the physical property, it may be checked and counted through investigating the possessed real estates, vehicles, as well as goods of big value, including antique and works of art; as for the monetary property, it may be checked and counted through investigating the deposits, the possessing of securities, and the situation of claims and debts.

In accordance with the principle of “equality of rights and duties”, the “Procedures” requires that the checking objects shall truthfully provide relevant information on the financial situation of an individual person or household, and shall not conceal or make false reports, and shall also well cooperate with the checking organ in carrying out the investigation while applying for social relief and social welfare treatment. If the law requires personal authorization while investigating the situation of deposits and securities, etc., the checking objects shall provide written authorization, and cooperate with the checking organ to carry out the investigation. Where the checking object’s objection against the examination and approval decisions made by relevant governmental departments involves the checking contents, relevant governmental departments entrusting the check may require the checking organ to review. If the checking object conceals property and income to try to defraud social relief and social welfare treatment, relevant governmental departments shall handle the case according to law.

With a view to safeguarding information safety and protecting the individual privacy and secrets of the checking objects, the “Procedures” provides that the checking organ shall at least assign two workers who shall present relevant documents while carrying out such check as making household investigation, neighborhood visits, information drawing, etc. The checking organ and its work staff shall keep secret of the information related to the checking objects obtained in the process of checking, and shall not reveal to organizations or individual persons with no relationship with the checking work.