China intends to set up a unified social credit code system based on resident ID card numbers and codes for organizations and institutions in a move to crack down on corruption, State Councilor Ma Kai said Sunday at the first session of the 12th National People's Congress (NPC).
Ma said the key goal is to prevent people from circumventing laws that restrict real estate ownership by surreptitiously registering multiple ID numbers.
"The government needs to take the lead in upholding the authority of the constitution, to act lawfully, and use legal measures to deepen reform, promote development and maintain stability," said Ma.
The real estate registration system, which will track each family's home purchase history, will help ensure safe transactions of properties and protect property owners' rights, the proposal said.
Zhu Lijia, professor of public management at China National School of Administration, said that linking everyone's identity number to their home purchase history will ensure market transparency.
"The plan aims to build a trust-based society, where real estate buying histories cannot be hidden," Zhu said. "It encourages fairer deals."
Ding Yifan, researcher at the Institute of World Development under the Development Research Center of the State Council, told the Global Times that greater transparency in the real estate market will allow local governments to undertake new initiatives.
"Such a system is the first essential step in collecting property taxes from homeowners," he said noting that local governments currently cannot collect even minimal property taxes and often rely on the sale of local lands to raise money.
With real estate transactions linked to a person's true ID, people won't be able to own multiple homes under different names, nor will they be able to avoid paying taxes on any rental income, said Ding.
"People won't be able to take advantage because the loopholes are being closed and everything will be transparent," he said.
Having all home transactions registered under a single system is a painstaking process that may take one to two years, said Ding, adding that homeownership restrictions have encouraged married couples to register fake divorces so they can buy more properties.
A standardized ID number registration, Ding said, will minimize the possibility of cross-province and cross-city crimes, which have been difficult to crack down on due to bureaucratic inconsistencies.
Commentators on China's social networks have railed against a series of scandals involving people who obtained multiple property using different forms of ID.
Gong Aiai, a former bank executive from a coal town in Shaanxi Province, became known as the infamous "house sister" after it was revealed she had obtained four household registration permits, and used them to purchase 41 properties in Beijing.
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