[Financial Perspective] "Small Incentives" Unlock New Consumer Vitality

Spending over 100 yuan on dining or shopping gives you a chance to win prizes! During this year’s Spring Festival consumption, prize-winning invoices have become a “big gift package” that stimulates shopping enthusiasm and market vitality. Consumers’ sense of participation and gain has increased, prompting them to “buy buy buy,” which boosts market warmth. The effective implementation of the prize-winning invoice pilot activity sends an important macro policy signal: a substantial boost to consumption through real financial support.

According to the activity plan, prize-winning invoice pilots are being carried out in 50 cities including Beijing, Shanghai, and Xiamen. During the six-month implementation period, 10 billion yuan in subsidy funds will be distributed, with the prize pool during the nine-day Spring Festival holiday exceeding 1 billion yuan. Consumers in pilot cities can participate in the lottery by purchasing, dining, traveling, or staying at establishments where the invoice amount exceeds 100 yuan. Recently, the progress of activities in various pilot cities has been smooth, and many consumers have received unexpected surprises. For example, in Nanning’s pilot activity, the first draw shared 2.7 million yuan in prizes from over 44,000 invoices; in Taiyuan, after 10 days of the pilot, over 140,000 invoices won prizes.

The implementation of the prize-winning invoice policy not only effectively promotes consumption but also benefits people’s livelihoods. This policy focuses on retail, catering, accommodation, cultural arts, entertainment, tourism, sports, and resident services—areas closely related to daily life, especially “clothing, food, housing, and transportation.” It encourages residents to spend and participate in lotteries after obtaining invoices, effectively boosting consumption willingness and motivation. The investment of 10 billion yuan in real money over six months serves not only as an incentive through lotteries but also as a form of “subsidy” to consumers, providing tangible benefits. Overall, the fiscal funds’ leverage stimulates demand and drives market sales.

The prize-winning invoice pilot also plays an important role in promoting corporate compliance and improving tax law adherence, achieving multiple benefits. Invoice management is a key tool for tax regulation. Implementing prize-winning invoices encourages consumers to actively request invoices and companies to voluntarily issue them, fostering a societal environment of lawful taxation and helping enterprises operate more compliantly. Of course, using a small “incentive” to promote proactive invoicing is just the beginning; sustained efforts are needed to strengthen tax law compliance across society.

This year, China continues to implement a more proactive fiscal policy. While increasing fiscal investment, it is also necessary to improve the efficiency of fund use. For the prize-winning invoice pilot, the 10 billion yuan investment must fully realize its intended effects. Process optimization, leveraging information technology to make participation convenient and quick, truly benefits the public and the people. Strengthening fund supervision ensures transparency, prevents corruption, manipulation, and illegal activities. Fiscal subsidy funds are strictly dedicated to paying consumer prizes, preventing fraud and misappropriation.

At the same time, performance evaluation should be strengthened to achieve the best results. After the pilot period, participating cities will conduct self-assessments. Relevant national departments will organize comprehensive performance evaluations and oversee local rectifications of identified issues. During implementation, close attention should be paid to participation levels, activity effects, the number of invoices issued, the amount of winning invoices, growth in retail sales of consumer goods, residents’ per capita consumption expenditure, and VAT revenue, among other indicators, to objectively and comprehensively assess the impact of prize-winning invoices on boosting consumption.

While implementing the prize-winning invoice pilot effectively, policy coordination should also be enhanced to maximize the synergistic effect of combined consumption-promoting policies. This year, ultra-long-term special government bonds continue to strongly support the renewal of consumer goods, with an initial allocation of 62.5 billion yuan in national subsidies already issued to localities. Additionally, a package of fiscal and financial policies to stimulate domestic demand has been introduced to further boost private investment and resident consumption. Policies such as interest subsidies for service industry loans and personal consumption loans have been optimized and upgraded. These policies work together to create a favorable environment for consumption, enhancing the sense of gain among enterprises and residents.

Consumption is a vital engine of economic growth and a key link in smooth domestic circulation. The outstanding performance of fiscal and financial policies in the “Happy Shopping New Spring” campaign has brought new momentum to this year’s consumption promotion efforts and demonstrates that macro policies will inject strong driving force into expanding domestic demand, providing solid support for consolidating and expanding the steady and positive economic trend. (Source: Economic Daily; Author: Zeng Jinhua)

【Source: China Economic Net】