Recently, some people reported to reporters that some local government service centers refused to accept cash. According to the reporter's field interview, the staff of the Tax Bureau of the Dadong District Government Affairs Service Center in Shenyang said that it was best to use WeChat and Alipay. They could not collect cash, and it was troublesome to go to the bank to do withholding business. The staff of the tax bureau of Heping District, Sujiatun District and Huanggu District Government Affairs Service Center in the city said that they could not receive cash, but only supported Alipay and WeChat payment. (May 13, Red Star News)
According to the sampling survey conducted by the People's Bank of China, more than 75% of the elderly often use cash. Among them, 80.4% of the elderly in the county often use cash.
Although electronic payment conforms to instrumental rationality, it may also alienate the "digital divide" into the "service divide". Driven by instrumental rationality, "the government service center refuses to accept cash" has brought inconvenience to some citizens, which obviously needs to be corrected.
It is illegal to refuse cash. Article 16 of the People's Bank Law clearly stipulates that no unit or individual may refuse to pay all public and private debts in the People's Republic of China with RMB.
In fact, as early as the beginning of 2021, the Notice on Matters Related to RMB Cash Collection and Payment in the Process of Tax Collection issued by the General Office of the State Administration of Taxation also explicitly requires that offline tax payment service sites (including tax service offices, agencies, etc.) should set up manual cash collection and payment channels to provide cash collection Change service. In addition, while vigorously promoting "non-contact" tax handling, local tax authorities also require that the needs of taxpayers and payers who do not use intelligent devices, as well as possible emergencies, should be fully considered to meet the needs of taxpayers and payers to pay taxes in cash.
It can be seen from this that the laws and regulations, even the aging transformation, require that cash cannot be rejected and must meet the needs of taxpayers and payers to pay taxes in cash. Under such rigid regulations, many government affairs halls still go their own way, refuse cash, and flagrantly violate the law for a long time. This not only damages the image of the local government, but also the credibility of the government.
Another important reason why this matter is so hotly discussed is that so many local government affairs halls refuse to accept cash, which seems to have been neglected for a long time. If enterprises and businesses do this, they may not be so "lucky", right?
Since October of last year, the People's Bank of China has carried out special rectification work on the rejection of RMB cash. On May 6, the People's Bank of China publicized several typical cases of rejecting RMB cash. In many cases of cash rejection, some units rejected cash for reasons such as "inconvenient change" and "easy to lose", and were all subject to administrative penalties. It was also exposed that some consumers used dimes together and were rejected by the supermarket staff - the items involved in charges in the government affairs hall are often large in amount, and cash is rejected for a long time, which seems to be more serious in nature. How to deal with it?
The government affairs service center is a place that serves the people. It should provide various conveniences to the people who handle affairs, rather than let the people run errands. The rejection of cash by the government affairs service center is not only a deviation from the service purpose, ignoring the rights of specific groups, but also a failure to set an example and abide by the law. How can we take the lead? This requires profound self-examination and reflection, solving problems from the source of ideas and systems, and avoiding repeating mistakes.
