China to Crack Down on Illegal Rural Home Appliance Sales
The Beijing Times, 7/14/09
At the first National Market Supervision Interdepartmental Joint Conference yesterday, Chinese Ministry of Commerce vice minister Jiang Zengwei said that from July 2009 to February 2010, the Ministry of Commerce will carry out policies aimed at preventing the sale of fake or inferior home appliances and consumer electronics as authorized products under the nationwide rural home appliance subsidy initiative. The measures include criminal investigations of non-tendered companies falsely using the "Home Appliances to the Countryside" label in printed materials, sales, packaging and logos, as well as illegal and misleading advertising by telephone, SMS or Internet. For authorized companies selected by the bidding process, stringent regulations are to be enforced on the handling of sales receipts.
Trials of the government's rural electronics subsidy initiative were first launched in December 2007 in Shandong, Henan, and Sichuan. In December 2008, the program was expanded to a total of 14 areas, including Inner Mongolia and Liaoning, and from February 1 this year it was rolled out nationwide. Since inception of the program through the end of June this year, a total of 13 mln units of home appliance and consumer electronic goods have been sold for some RMB 20.8 bln.
Keywords: Jiang Zengwei consumer electronics government initiative hardware home appliances scam Ministry of Commerce rural government subsidy regulation revenue
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