China increases reward for people reporting illegal market activities

SHANGHAI :China's market regulator said on Friday that it will increase the reward for people reporting illegal activities in the market to up to 1 million yuan (US$153,831.95), as it seeks to tighten supervision.

The State Administration for Market Regulation (SAMR) said it was jointly issuing the measures with the country's finance ministry and that they will take effect on Dec.1.

People who successfully report cases will receive between 1-5per cent of the fine that the offenders have to pay, the regulator said, with a minimum reward of 1,000 yuan and a maximum of 1 million yuan per case. The regulator did not specify what the rewards were previously in its statement.

The SAMR said it was particularly concerned about illegal activities in the food, medicine, special equipment and industrial products sectors, such as fake or shoddy goods. Previously, the maximum reward for reporting fake goods was 300,000 yuan per case, for example.

"Mobilizing social supervision and gathering strength from the public will enforce high pressure supervision against illegal activities in the market, making offenders stop their hands," the market regulator said on its website.

China has been increasing scrutiny of various industries, targeting areas from user privacy to monopolies. Earlier this week, the SAMR also issued draft laws aimed at combatting unfair competition.

(US$1 = 6.5006 Chinese yuan)

(Reporting by Sophie Yu and Brenda Goh; Editing by Jane Merriman and Ana Nicolaci da Costa)