Recently, the Ministry of Finance, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, and the Ministry of Transport issued the Notice on Carrying out the Pilot Work of Making up Shortcomings in County Charging and Replacing Facilities (hereinafter referred to as the Notice). The Notice proposes that from 2024 to 2026, pilot work will be carried out to remedy the shortcomings of county charging and changing facilities, and strive to achieve "full coverage of rural areas" of charging and changing infrastructure. The central government will arrange incentive funds to support pilot counties in carrying out pilot work. During the demonstration period, the pilot counties that reach the highest goal each year can obtain up to 45 million yuan.
Wang Dongwei, Vice Minister of the Ministry of Finance, said at the press conference of the Office of the National People's Political Consultative Conference recently that this year he would support about 70 pilot counties in 24 provinces to tap the consumption potential of rural new energy vehicles.
In terms of reward standards, the Notice clearly states that the central finance will provide reward funds to pilot counties that have been approved by the three departments for filing and have completed their tasks and objectives. The demonstration period of each pilot county is three years.
The reward standard is set according to the power utilization rate of charging and changing facilities in pilot counties each year, which is divided into three grades. During the demonstration period, the pilot counties that reach the highest goal each year can obtain up to 45 million yuan. The incentive fund is mainly used for the construction and operation of the charging and replacement infrastructure in the pilot counties, and shall not be used to balance the local financial resources, purchase subsidies for new energy vehicles and operating subsidies for new energy vehicles.
After the completion of the pilot project, the three departments will give 10% of the reward standard to the counties that have exceeded the target and have obvious demonstration and driving effect on the surrounding areas.
In terms of fund review and allocation, the Notice requires that the three departments should publicize the pilot counties that agree to record in a centralized manner in the way of "advance allocation first, then liquidation". At the end of the publicity period, the central government will allocate no less than 70% of the incentive funds in advance to support the pilot counties to start the pilot work of county charging and replacing power facilities. The reward fund will be liquidated according to the annual target assessment results of the pilot counties.
Before the end of February each year, the provincial leading department shall, together with relevant departments, organize and complete the review of the demonstration situation of each pilot county in the previous year, including the construction of the charging and changing infrastructure, power utilization, application of new technologies and new modes, as well as the accessibility of rural roads and charging and changing places in the county, and upload the review results to the clearing platform. The three departments entrust a third-party organization to organize experts to supervise and inspect the audit work and results of relevant provinces in a certain proportion by means of material review, on-site spot check, etc., and use the clearing platform to audit the completion of the goals of pilot counties in each province in accordance with the goal guidance and result guidance, and issue a supervision and inspection report. The three departments shall determine the final audit results according to the supervision and inspection report and provincial audit results. The Ministry of Finance shall allocate funds according to the final audit results and procedures.
"Such measures are expected to drive the consumption of new energy vehicles in rural areas, and expand the scope of use of new energy vehicles." He Daixin, director of the financial research office of the Institute of Financial Strategy, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, said that the work of patching up the shortcomings of county charging and changing facilities is to promote the gradual popularization of new energy vehicles. The central finance supported the construction of county charging and changing infrastructure, and accelerated the implementation of this public infrastructure project. (Economic Daily reporter Su Ruiqi)
