Passengers in Shanghai commute to work by metro trains. (photo: Yang Hui/GT)

Shanghai government has announced to exempt or reduce the insurance premiums paid by employers amid the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak.

The exemption will cover basic endowment, unemployment, and work-related injuries insurance policies that local medium-sized, small and micro enterprises pay for their employees from February to June, said Fei Yuqing, deputy director of Shanghai Human Resources and Social Security Bureau at a press conference Tuesday.

The city's large companies, private non-enterprise organizations, and social groups will only cover half of the three aforementioned insurance policies from February to April.

This policy is expected to relieve enterprises' burden by some 53 billion yuan ($7.6 billion) this year, Fei said.

Shanghai also cut half of the basic medical insurance that local companies pay for employees from February to June. 

The premium rate is decreased to 5.25 percent from 10.5 percent during these five months, which is estimated to reduce employers' expenses by 21 billion yuan, according to Fei.

For the employers with zero or fewer layoffs, Shanghai has promised to return 50 percent of the unemployment insurance fees that both employers and employees paid last year that will benefit the city's 140,000 employers, Fei said.

Shanghai's overall social insurance system is currently functioning smoothly with a surplus of 49.57 billion yuan, local finance bureau deputy director Jin Weimin said Tuesday. The revenue of the city's social insurance fund accounted for 493.16 billion yuan in 2019 and the expenditure reached 443.59 billion yuan, he added.