China’s beefed up statistics and accounting laws under review, robust fines to increase cost of fraud
- China’s top legislature is reviewing proposed amendments to laws governing statistics and accounting
- Beijing is eager to clamp down on inflated or manipulated economic statistics, while also upholding rules in the world’s second-largest financial market
China’s revisions to laws governing statistics and accounting to mete out heavier penalties for falsifying data and financial reports include fines of up to 10 times any illegal income for businesses and other entities.
The revisions came amid Beijing’s increased focus on data accuracy and authenticity to inform decision making, while aiming to cleanse markets of fraud.
China’s top legislature, the Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress (NPC), on Tuesday began the review of the proposed amendments, with revisions and new clauses drafted to increase fines and the cost of violations, state media reported.
“In recent years, statistical work has faced challenges, like persistent data fabrication, ineffective supervision and low non-compliance cost for offenders,” said National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) director Kang Yi.
The 14 amendments to the law governing statistics would ensure local authorities, statistical agencies and department heads must not request, imply or guide their staff, subordinates or those subject to statistical investigations to submit false data.