Discussion of the Establishment of Railway Public Welfare Compensation Mechanisms in China: Perspectives and Strategies

摘要

Railway public welfare compensation mechanisms play a key role in promoting railway market-oriented reforms and ensuring traffic demand . For now, government transfer payments are the format of railway public welfare compensation, such as cross-subsidy, tax breaks and railway construction funds. How to establish effective and operational railway public welfare compensation frameworks is still a great challenge. We summarize and analyze the problems in railway welfare compensation in China, including the lack of systematic institution design, government unilateral decisions and deficient participation of stakeholders, a lack of scientific identification of railway welfare compensation scope, imperfections public welfare compensation objects and compensation modes, a lack of scientific basis on compensation standards and methods, a lack of supervision mechanisms, and inconspicuous compensation effects. Finally, following the direction of market-oriented reform of socialism with Chinese characteristics, strategies for railway public welfare compensation institution establishment are put forward: a fundamental principle for establishing a railway public welfare compensation institution, scientific and reasonable definition of the public welfare of railway and transport products, identification of the compensatory carrier and object, building scientific method for compensatory standard accounting, and corresponding policy measures.