The Ministry of Commerce and 4 other departments: will provide subsidies for 12 types of household appliances, including refrigerators, washing machines, televisions, air conditioners, and computers. The subsidy for each item will not exceed 2000 yuan.

On January 15th, the General Offices of the Ministry of Commerce and other four departments issued a notice regarding the work of replacing old appliances with new ones by 2025. It mentioned that local governments should coordinate the use of central and local funds to provide subsidies to individual consumers who purchase refrigerators, washing machines, televisions, air conditioners, computers, water heaters, household stoves, range hoods, water purifiers, dishwashers, rice cookers, microwave ovens, and other 12 types of household appliances with energy efficiency or water efficiency standards of level 2 or above. The subsidy rate is 15% of the final selling price of the products mentioned above, and an additional 5% subsidy is given to products with energy efficiency or water efficiency standards of level 1 or above. Each consumer can receive a subsidy for one unit of each type of product (up to 3 units for air conditioning products), with each subsidy not exceeding 2000 yuan. Local governments are responsible for determining the specific varieties of the 12 types of household appliances mentioned above. The original text reads as follows: Notice from the General Offices of the Ministry of Commerce and four other departments on the work of replacing old appliances with new ones by 2025 Departments of Commerce, Development and Reform, Finance, and Market Supervision of provinces, autonomous regions, municipalities directly under the Central Government, and Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps: In order to thoroughly implement the decisions and arrangements of the Party Central Committee and the State Council, vigorously boost consumption, and in accordance with the requirements of "Promoting Large-scale Equipment Renewal and Trade-in Action for Consumer Goods" (State Council [2024] No. 7) and "Notice on Intensifying and Extending the Implementation of Large-scale Equipment Renewal and Trade-in Policy for 2025" (Development and Reform Commission, Ministry of Ecology and Environment, Ministry of Natural Resources, and Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development [2025] No. 13), we hereby notify the relevant matters concerning the work of replacing old appliances with new ones by 2025 as follows: 1. Clearly define the scope of subsidies Local governments should coordinate the use of central and local funds to provide subsidies to individual consumers who purchase refrigerators, washing machines, televisions, air conditioners, computers, water heaters, household stoves, range hoods, water purifiers, dishwashers, rice cookers, microwave ovens, and other 12 types of household appliances with energy efficiency or water efficiency standards of level 2 or above. The subsidy rate is 15% of the final selling price of the products mentioned above, and an additional 5% subsidy is given to products with energy efficiency or water efficiency standards of level 1 or above. Each consumer can receive a subsidy for one unit of each type of product (up to 3 units for air conditioning products), with each subsidy not exceeding 2000 yuan. Local governments are responsible for determining the specific varieties of the 12 types of household appliances mentioned above. Encourage localities to combine with local residents' actual consumption, provide subsidies for other large durable household appliances, with energy efficiency or water efficiency labels referring to the subsidy standards for the aforementioned 12 types of household appliances, and the subsidy standards for products without energy efficiency or water efficiency labels should not exceed the subsidy standards for level 2 energy efficiency products. 2. Optimize the application and payment process The subsidy application process design in various regions should be simple, user-friendly, and efficient, to maximize convenience for consumers and reduce duplication of information reporting from the source, while protecting consumers' personal information. Support consumers to voluntarily choose online or offline channels, enjoy subsidies through instant deduction or post-payment, actively expand payment channels, not restrict consumers' payment methods and types of payment vouchers, and not require business entities to purchase new payment equipment for participating in activities. This will effectively enhance consumers' payment service experience and create a safe and convenient payment environment. Encourage home appliance sales companies to cooperate with production enterprises and recycling enterprises to carry out promotion activities for trading in old for new appliances, and encourage financial institutions to provide additional discounts to create a policy "combination." 3. Fairly support all types of entities Local governments should adhere to the principle of a unified national big market, reasonably determine and timely update the list of business entities participating in the trade-in activity for consumer goods, and not restrict business entities' participation based on sales volume, capitalization capacity, etc. Support online and offline business entities, as well as business entities of different ownership, registration locations, and scales to participate in the activity equally. Following the principle of local implementation, strengthen overall coordination work, conduct appliance trade-ins on a provincial-level administrative division basis, and determine the policy participating entities. Encourage qualified localities to adopt models such as "appliance companies + e-commerce platforms + brand stores" to participate in the trade-in policy, with appliance companies and e-commerce platforms bearing the regulatory responsibility for their merchants. While strengthening process supervision and risk prevention, under the premise of adapting to local conditions, simplify the verification process and reduce the upfront funding pressure on policy participating entities by utilizing methods such as pre-allocating partial funds and rolling out funds. 4. Create a standardized market environment Various regions should guide policy participating entities to operate with integrity and publicly commit to product sales prices. If any entity is found to be not fulfilling price commitments or engaging in practices such as increasing prices before discounting, their qualification for participating in activities should be immediately revoked, and any national subsidy funds received should be recovered. Encourage participating entities to set up a special subsidy area for appliance trade-ins and prominently display on their website or in their business premises the subsidy standards, subsidy amounts, and the nature of the national subsidy for appliance trade-ins. Provide smooth channels for consumers to report complaints, strengthen supervision and inspection of appliance product quality, and crack down on counterfeit and substandard products and other illegal activities. 5. Strengthen digital empowerment Various regions should deepen the construction of digital platforms, promote data sharing with local government platforms, make full use of the Internet, big data, and other information technology means, accurately grasp information at all links of the entire chain, and conduct analysis and forecasting of the appliance consumption situation and trends. Enhance regulatory capabilities, deeply analyze and compare data on subsidy applications, transaction payments, fund verification, order audits, etc., to ensure the authenticity of consumer identity information and transaction information, and prevent fraudulent transactions, inter-regional repeat purchases, hoarding, and cheating for subsidies. 6. Strengthen subsidy fund management Provincial-level people's governments are the primary responsible entities for fund management, ensuring fund safety, timely disbursement, and effective implementation of subsidy policies. The responsible departments of development and reform in various regions are responsible for enhancing overall coordination and advancing the implementation of policies for "two news." The commerce departments in various regions are responsible for organizing and implementing the work of replacing old appliances with new ones, working with relevant departments to carry out subsidy fund audits and disbursements, and enhancing the efficiency of fund utilization. The finance department in various regions is responsible for supervising the disbursement of subsidy funds, and the Ministry of Finance will organize local finance supervision bureaus to conduct spot checks on the declaration and use of subsidy funds in a timely manner. The market supervision departments in various regions are responsible for strengthening the supervision of the quality and prices of new appliances, cracking down on price fraud and other illegal activities in accordance with the law, and effectively safeguarding the legitimate rights and interests of consumers. Various regions should strictly prohibit various forms of fraudulent activities to obtain subsidy funds and deal with them in accordance with the law and regulations, and transfer those involved in suspected crimes to the judicial authorities.Hold accountable for criminal responsibility.Seven, improving the construction of recycling system Local commercial departments, together with relevant departments, are responsible for improving the construction of the waste household appliance recycling system and strengthening supervision and management. Localities should coordinate the relationship between "subsidies for purchasing new household appliances" and "disposal of waste household appliances," prioritize support for entities with the ability to recycle waste household appliances and actively provide recycling services to participate in the policy of trading in old appliances for new ones, and take multiple measures to facilitate consumers to exchange old appliances for new ones. Scientifically layout a three-level recycling system of front-end delivery of community collection points, hub recycling of street transfer stations, and end-sorting of district and county sorting centers. Cultivate a number of pilot cities and enterprises for the recycling of waste household appliances and other renewable resources and develop new models such as "Internet + recycling." Make good use of support funds for pilot cities with modern commercial circulation systems and funds for the construction of county-level commercial systems to promote the sound development of recycling systems for renewable resources, including waste household appliances. Encourage policy participants to provide integrated services for consumers by establishing their own recycling channels, cooperating with recycling companies, and other means. Strengthen environmental supervision of the recycling and utilization of renewable resources, strictly crack down on illegal activities such as "workshop-style" recycling causing environmental pollution, and urge policy participants to deliver waste household appliances to legitimate dismantling companies. Localities should fully mobilize the enthusiasm of all sectors of society, organize platform enterprises to carry out themed activities for trading in old appliances for new ones, provide convenient conditions for policy participants to enter communities, rural areas, and grassroots to carry out promotional activities. Rely on local 12345 government service hotlines to establish consultation service hotlines and respond in a timely manner to societal concerns. Carefully review the progress of work, existing problems, and experiences and practices, dynamically track changes in the household appliance consumption market, and conduct timely policy effectiveness evaluations. If a certain region exhausts the allocated central funds, the excess amount is supported by local funds from that region, and timely announcements are made to the public to ensure a smooth and orderly transition. Ministry of Commerce Office National Development and Reform Commission Office Ministry of Finance Office State Administration for Market Regulation Office January 13, 2025 This article is compiled from the Ministry of Commerce, GMTEight Editor: Chen Wenfang.