The Shanghai Municipal People’s Government released the Circular on Reducing the Rate of Payment of Social Insurance Premiums in Shanghai on its official website, on 22^nd March 2016, as below:

As of 1^st January 2016, the rate of basic social pension premiums, paid by employers for a portion of local employees, shall be reduced by 1%, from 21% down to 20%; the employers’ payment rate of medical insurance premiums shall be cut back by 1%, from 11% to 10%; and the employers’ part of unemployment insurance premiums shall drop from 1.5% to 1%, a decline of 0.5%. The total percentage of the three items of insurance shall be decreased by 2.5%. The Shanghai Municipal Human Resources and Social Security Bureau will clear accounts and refund excessive part of the social insurance premiums paid by the local enterprises in line with the previous rate since the beginning of this year.