Shenzhen will have pipeline gas expenditure cut by 196 million yuan (US$30.79 million) a year after the city lowers the price of pipeline gas for households, according to draft plans released for an online hearing Monday.

Each household will have their cost of pipeline gas reduced by 5.65 yuan in average a month, or 0.397 yuan per cubic meter, while the prices for industrial and commercial users will not change, according to proposal A released by the Shenzhen Municipal Development and Reform Commission.

Under proposal B, the price for households will be reduced by 0.3 yuan per cubic meter, while the price for industrial and commercial users will be lowered by 0.0818 yuan per cubic meter to 3.9091 yuan. For power plants, the benchmark price will be lowered by 0.0105 yuan per cubic meter from 0.1813 yuan per cubic meter to 0.1708 yuan.

The household gas price in Shenzhen is 3.5 yuan per cubic meter, ranking second among 40 major Chinese cities, following that of Xiamen, which is 3.61 yuan. The price in cities in East China like Shanghai, Hangzhou, Suzhou and Nanjing costs 3 yuan per cubic meter.

The city will establish a mechanism to link retail gas prices to procurement costs. The mechanism will be automatically triggered, without going through a hearing, when the procurement costs reach certain conditions.

At the online hearing Monday afternoon, the city also announced plans to increase sewage treatment fees. Proposal A calls for the fee to rise from 0.9286 yuan per cubic meter of used tap water to 1.34 yuan, up by 44.7%. Under proposal B, the city will increase household sewage treatment fees by 33.4% to 1.0894 yuan per cubic meter.

The increase of the sewage treatment fees is to cover expenditures in sewage treatment, according to the commission. The existing fee, which had not been adjusted for years, is the lowest among 40 major Chinese cities. Data showed that the city spent 4.33 billion yuan in sewage treatment in 2020, of which 1.48 billion yuan was collected from residents, while 2.85 billion yuan was paid by the government.