China News Service, September 10. According to the Chinese Government website, the General Office of the State Council issued the "Notice on Strengthening the Management of Difficulties in Repayment of Small and Medium-sized Enterprises". The specific contents are as follows:
Notice of the General Office of the State Council on Strengthening the Management of Difficulties in Repayment of Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises
State Council issued [2026] No. 24
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 agencies directly under the State Council:
In order to solve the problem of difficulty in repayment of small and medium-sized enterprises in accordance with the law and smooth the economic cycle, with the consent of the State Council, the relevant matters are hereby notified as follows:
1. Improve industry account payment rules
(1) Clarify reasonable account periods by industry. Competent departments of various industries will embed the requirements for timely payment of accounts into industry management and strengthen implementation. Formulate and improve settlement and payment management regulations in this industry, clarify key elements such as the starting point of the accounting period, payment methods and processes, inspection and acceptance of goods and services (or project completion settlement) standards and deadlines, and the maximum payment period (hereinafter collectively referred to as the four key elements of payment). While respecting transaction habits, we will guide large enterprises in the industry and their wholly-owned or controlled subsidiaries (hereinafter collectively referred to as large enterprises) to limit the maximum payment period for small and medium-sized enterprises to 60 days. Formulate, improve and promote the use of model contract texts and implement the four key elements of payment. Detailed industry-specific standards for identifying untrustworthy behavior in defaulting on enterprise accounts and clarifying disciplinary measures. Formulate supporting provisions for the "Regulations on Guaranteeing Payments to Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises". If the payment method is not specified in the contract, agencies, institutions, and large enterprises shall use cash to pay the accounts of small and medium-sized enterprises, and shall not use commercial drafts or electronic vouchers for accounts receivable (hereinafter referred to as electronic vouchers) as substitute payments.
(2) Promote leading enterprises to take the lead in implementing the “60-day cash payment commitment”. Release the 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 in cash to small and medium-sized enterprises within 60 days from the date of delivery of goods, projects, and services. Supervise large enterprises to strictly follow accounting standards for enterprises and correct behaviors such as not signing contracts, not issuing invoices, and not confirming creditor-debt relationships. Guide relevant associations to carry out timely payment self-discipline management and formulate timely payment self-discipline norms.
2. Strengthen supervision of payment behavior of large enterprises
(3) Conduct interviews and rectification. Establish and improve the account monitoring mechanism for large enterprises, focusing on large enterprises with large accounts payable and abundant cash assets. For large enterprises that intentionally lengthen their billing periods, the industry authorities or regulatory authorities, the People's Bank of China, the State Administration for Market Regulation, etc. will conduct joint interviews and supervise rectifications, and the relevant local people's governments will cooperate in the supervision and rectification work. For companies that refuse to make corrections after interviews, joint punishments will be implemented in accordance with laws and regulations; for companies that are found to be seriously untrustworthy, they will be publicized on the "Credit China" website and penalties for breach of trust will be implemented in accordance with laws and regulations.
(4) Strict law enforcement against unfair competition. Accelerate the refinement of the enforcement guidelines for Article 15 of the Anti-Unfair Competition Law, handle relevant complaints and reports in accordance with the law, and punish large enterprises in accordance with the law and regulations after verification, and publicly expose typical cases to form a deterrent to large enterprises that abuse their advantageous position to deliberately lengthen the account period by blurring the starting point of the accounting period, delaying the inspection and acceptance of goods and services (or project completion settlement), using commercial bills or electronic vouchers to extend the payment period in disguise.
(5) Improve account information disclosure requirements. Refine and improve the information disclosure rules for listed companies, and clearly require listed companies with accounts payable reaching a certain scale to disclose the main payment methods, average account periods, issuance of commercial bills and electronic vouchers, etc. Companies that issue corporate bonds or non-financial corporate debt financing instruments in the exchange market and the inter-bank market are required to strengthen account information disclosure. Guide listed companies and bond-issuing enterprises with long billing periods and a high proportion of non-cash payments to gradually reduce their billing periods, increase the proportion of cash payments and make timely payments. Accelerate the improvement of information disclosure rules for annual reports such as overdue accounts payable by large enterprises, and increase supervision and enforcement efforts.
(6) Give full play to the role of central and state-owned enterprises in setting an example for timely payment. Central enterprises took the lead in clarifying the four key elements of payment in contracts, taking the lead in implementing various requirements for electronic voucher business and electronic voucher service platform management, using all cash payments for small and medium-sized enterprises, and maintaining a reasonable cash payment ratio for large enterprises. All breaches of contract and arrears will be discovered and paid, and responsibilities will be strictly held accountable in accordance with laws and regulations. If a large enterprise undertakes a central enterprise project and then subcontracts the implementation, the central enterprise shall require the general contractor in the contract to pay the subcontractor in a timely manner and maintain the same cash payment ratio. Embed timely payment requirements into central enterprise compliance management systems. Incorporate the payment of accounts payable, commercial bills and electronic voucher issuance of central enterprises and subsidiaries at all levels into the supervision system, and use the treasury system to implement penetrating supervision. Enterprises supervised by local state-owned assets supervision departments shall refer to and implement the above requirements.
3. Standardize the management of non-cash payment tools
(7) Standardize the management of electronic voucher business. The maximum payment period of electronic vouchers is reduced to 6 months. Electronic voucher service platforms are not allowed to issue new electronic vouchers with payment periods exceeding 6 months. Commercial banks and commercial factoring companies are not allowed to provide financing for electronic vouchers with payment periods exceeding 6 months. Monitor large enterprises that excessively use commercial drafts and electronic vouchers, and urge them to reduce the scale of commercial draft and electronic voucher businesses. Large enterprises are required not to force or covertly force small and medium-sized enterprises to obtain accounts receivable financing from their associated commercial factoring companies.
(8) Strictly supervise electronic voucher service platforms. The electronic voucher service platform must strictly implement various compliance requirements such as filing management, voucher period, and fee disclosure, and connect all operating data to the Shanghai Commercial Paper Exchange. The Shanghai Commercial Paper Exchange shall monitor the issuance of commercial bills and electronic vouchers by large enterprises across agencies and in a full-scale manner. If the commercial bills and electronic vouchers of large enterprises are overdue, the Shanghai Commercial Paper Exchange and the electronic voucher service platform will disclose them respectively. The electronic voucher service platform will stop providing new electronic voucher services for enterprises whose payments are overdue.
4. Strengthen capital transmission efficiency and financing support
(9) Smooth the capital transmission chain. Government procurement projects shall be paid in full in cash, and timely payment shall be included in the scope of supervision of government procurement projects; supervision of the entire process of government investment project funds from release to payment shall be strengthened, and the owner unit shall give priority to cash payment and promote the project general contractor unit to promptly pay no less than the same proportion of cash to subcontracting units. Existing government-invested projects that have been completed but have not yet been settled and paid must complete the final financial accounts and pay the project fees as soon as possible, so as to encourage the general contractor to pay subcontractors as soon as possible and promote the payment of wages to migrant workers. Strengthen the supervision of the implementation of the "Administrative State-owned Assets Management Regulations" and strictly implement the deadline requirements for construction projects from completion acceptance to completion financial settlement. Public institutions must strictly implement the legal payment deadline requirements for purchasing goods, projects, and services from small and medium-sized enterprises. Regions and industries with prominent arrears problems discovered by the National Complaint Platform for Defaults and Arrears to Small and Medium-sized Enterprises will focus on supervising and making rectifications within a time limit, and will notify regions and industries when necessary.
(10) Increase supporting financing support. For large enterprises that have achieved significant results in reducing the term of accounts payable and reducing scale, we will strengthen financing supply and provide support in terms of loans and bond issuance. Guide commercial banks to support large enterprises in replacing accounts payable through loans and bond issuance financing on the premise that risks are controllable, and make timely cash payments to upstream and downstream small and medium-sized enterprises. Explore the use of evaluation results of specialization and new development of small and medium-sized enterprises in financing and credit enhancement, and guide financial institutions to increase support for high-quality small and medium-sized enterprises.
Relevant departments in all regions must strengthen work coordination, strengthen linkage between upper and lower levels, continue to consolidate responsibilities, adhere to both guidance and correction and law enforcement and accountability, promote the overall improvement of the problem of payment difficulties for small and medium-sized enterprises, and create a good ecosystem for the integrated development, mutual benefit and win-win of large and medium-sized enterprises. The special class for cleaning up corporate accounts in arrears should strengthen overall coordination, guidance and supervision, and follow-up evaluation to promote the implementation of various tasks. Report important situations in a timely manner and according to procedures.
general office of the state council
September 3, 2026
