A series of reports on "Benefiting People's Livelihood and Promoting Consumption" ①
How to publish consumer coupons in Economic Daily · China Economic Net reporter Feng Qiyu
Wang Pengzuo (issued by Xinhua News Agency)
According to the editor ’s opinion, the new coronary pneumonia epidemic has had a certain impact on economic and social development. The staged shutdown and suspension of production have affected the income of some residents and also suppressed consumption to a certain extent. From now on, the Economic Daily has launched a series of reports on "Promoting Consumers' Livelihood and Promoting Consumption". This issue focuses on consumer coupons. Recently, more than 30 cities such as Nanjing, Hangzhou, and Ningbo have launched consumer coupons ranging from several million yuan to hundreds of millions of yuan, aiming to stimulate residents' enthusiasm for consumption and help some industries that have been hit by the epidemic to speed up their recovery. Experts said that it is necessary to do a good job well, clarify the distribution process, focus on precise delivery, and avoid rising prices.
On April 3, Hangzhou began to issue the second phase of electronic consumer coupons. Since the outbreak of New Coronary Pneumonia, domestic consumption growth has been affected to a certain extent. Therefore, according to the actual situation, various localities have launched consumer coupons with a total amount ranging from several million yuan to hundreds of millions of yuan, aiming to stimulate residents' enthusiasm for consumption and release consumer demand. What should be paid attention to during the implementation of the consumer voucher policy? What role will it play in driving consumption?
Intended to accelerate the recovery of the economy
Recently, in some places, "you didn't receive the coupon" has become a new social hot word. Consumer coupons are pulling people back to the consumption track before the outbreak. Affected by the epidemic, residents have encountered more difficulties in increasing their incomes this year. The unemployment risk in some industries has further expanded, and the basis for supporting consumption growth has been hit. Especially for the consumption of film-type, catering and other personnel-intensive services, even after the epidemic is controlled, people still In the wait-and-see situation, this part of the industry that was hit the hardest by the epidemic has recovered slowly.
"Under such circumstances, the introduction of consumer vouchers in various places is intended to play a leading role in fiscal funds to reactivate people's enthusiasm for consumption." Zou Yunhan, deputy researcher of the Economic Forecast Department of the National Information Center, said in an interview with a reporter from the Economic Daily that local governments took Reduce consumer concerns, promote the recovery of the consumer market, and through the rebound on the demand side, drive the recovery of the supply side, thereby promoting the accelerated recovery of the economy.
From the perspective of the effect of issuing consumer vouchers in various places, it is necessary to use consumer vouchers to initiate consumption. Liu Zhibiao, a professor at the School of Economics of Nanjing University and Changjiang Institute of Industrial Economics, believes that there are three obvious advantages in stimulating consumption by issuing consumer vouchers. On the one hand, it can be quickly converted into consumption within a certain period of time, which has a more obvious effect on stimulating the economy; on the other hand, it can be targeted at the low- and middle-income groups who need more subsidies, reflecting the government's care for the low- and middle-income groups. In addition, consumer coupons have obvious directional characteristics in the process of use, which is of great help to some industries that have been hit by the epidemic as soon as possible.
The issuance of consumer coupons can quickly form a realistic purchasing power and help the urban tertiary industry to quickly pass the epidemic "ice period". Chen Lifen, Director of the Service Industry Division of the Circulation Industry Promotion Center of the Ministry of Commerce, said: "Since the outbreak, the industries closest to consumers, such as catering, retail, tourism, and entertainment, have been the first to be hit. Issuing consumer coupons is conducive to activation. Consumption during the dormant period will heat up consumption, accelerate consumption replenishment, and stimulate demand. "
Liu Zhibiao also said that there are two aspects of consumer voucher policies that deserve attention. One is to consider the fact that some manufacturing industries have excess capacity. The impact of this epidemic shows that the export-oriented economy relies heavily on foreign markets and needs to shift to using the domestic market to develop the economy and rely on domestic demand to promote industrial transformation. Issuing consumer vouchers is a basic signal to start domestic demand. Secondly, due to the epidemic situation, unstable work and reduced income, some people have encountered difficulties in life. The issuance of consumption vouchers is of great help to the consumption of low- and middle-income groups.
Strictly issue procedures and methods
Currently, more than 30 cities including Nanjing, Hangzhou, Ningbo, Chongqing, Foshan, Shenzhen, Zhengzhou, and Jiaxing have issued vouchers. As the scope of the issuance of consumer coupons has expanded, many experts have indicated that the use of consumer coupons should be strictly regulated in the issue of consumer coupons.
In the process of using consumer coupons, it is necessary to clarify the field of consumer coupon subsidies, as well as the subsidy process and method. It is important to support industries that have been hit hard in this epidemic, and GSP consumption vouchers cannot be issued universally. Zhao Ping, director of the International Trade Research Department of the China Council for the Promotion of International Trade, believes that only by focusing on areas where the epidemic losses are relatively large can we play a major role in promoting consumption and stabilizing the economy with financial funds, and use small consumer coupons to spur industry stability .
In addition, in the process and method of using consumption coupons, the method of consumption first and subsidy should be adopted. Zhao Ping said that consumption coupons can only be used when consumption takes place in the payment link, so as to avoid financial funds being cheated.
Based on the previous experience of issuing coupons, Zou Yunhan believes that several issues must be paid attention to during the implementation process. First, there is inconsistency in the distribution channels, links and standards, and imperfect supervision measures, which are prone to breed corruption, and it is necessary to standardize the distribution and management process. The second is that consumer vouchers, as a kind of tokens, circulate in the market and are easy to be counterfeited, increasing the cost of anti-counterfeiting and anti-counterfeiting. The third is that after the issuance of consumer coupons, they will flow into the market, and there will be a secondary market for the exchange of consumer coupons for cash, which will easily breed underground transactions, resulting in no increase in the overall consumption of the people, and the "yellow" behavior disrupts the normal operation of the market. On the whole, the issuer, issue channel and post-event supervision of consumer coupons need to be scientifically designed and supervised in order to achieve the purpose of issuing consumer coupons.
Liu Zhibiao said that it is not recommended to adopt the average issuance of consumer vouchers, and more attention should be paid to the accurate placement of low- and middle-income groups, especially those who are in difficulty. "For high-income people, consumption vouchers are not so powerful in stimulating consumption, but for low- and middle-income people with a relatively high propensity to consume, consumer vouchers can help them to overcome difficulties to a certain extent and serve as a social stabilizer. effect."
Eventually turned to income distribution reform
From the perspective of stimulating consumption, how do you view the role of consumption vouchers? Experts believe that the overall social demand cannot be fully realized through consumption vouchers, and it is impossible to issue consumption vouchers without restrictions. It is necessary to fundamentally play the role of consumption in promoting economic growth, and ultimately turn to income distribution reform.
Zou Yunhan believes that when consumption falls into a trough, external forces are really needed to drive the recovery of consumer confidence and consumption capacity, and consumer coupons have a certain role in promoting demand. However, it should be noted that the policy effect of issuing consumer vouchers is closely related to the specific content of the issuance method and the scope of issuance. Different product demand elasticities and different industrial relevance may bring different effects. Objectively speaking, consumer voucher policies have more short-term effects, and their role is to form a "consumption-investment-production-income-re-consumption" cycle driven by consumer vouchers. Therefore, choosing the right link for the consumer sub-industry and scientific design is the key to the role of consumer coupons.
Liu Zhibiao said that after all, consumer coupons are a temporary measure and cannot be adopted for a long time. The most fundamental issue is to turn to income distribution reform so that low- and middle-income people can enjoy the income distribution results corresponding to labor, so that economic growth is inclusive and sustainable.
Regarding people's concerns about the rise in prices caused by consumer vouchers, experts say it is unlikely. "Consumer vouchers will not cause supply shortages." Zhao Ping believes that some domestic industries are currently affected by the epidemic and are still in the process of gradually picking up demand. In the long run, China's goods and services are basically in a state of balance between supply and demand. From the perspective of demand, consumer vouchers are actually equivalent to giving consumers a discount promotion opportunity, which will not cause the demand to rise too fast, so there will be no demand-driven price increases.
In addition, the use of consumer coupons can release the suppressed demand as soon as possible, so that the scale of demand can be restored as soon as possible. Therefore, for the supply level, there will be no increase in costs due to the issuance of consumer coupons. Therefore, there is no cost-driven price increase in the issuance of consumer coupons.
Zou Yunhan said that the main contradiction in the current consumer market is oversupply, and the issuance of consumer coupons can help increase demand and narrow the gap in demand. It is more of a “throwing bricks and attracting jade”.
Feng Qiyu