A property management company in Ruian, Wenzhou, was fined over 130,000 yuan for charging electricity fees without approval for price increases.

According to “Credit China (Zhejiang),” on March 27, a property management company in Rui’an was warned and fined more than RMB 130,000 by the Rui’an Municipal Market Regulation Administration for adding charges to terminal electricity bills without obtaining the price authorities’ approval for price increases, in violation of the relevant provisions such as the “Electric Power Law of the People’s Republic of China.”

The party involved is a wholly owned subsidiary established by Zhejiang Weitai Machinery Co., Ltd. It is responsible for the daily management, leasing promotion, and property operations of the Rui’an Financial Innovation Industrial Park (the property rights of which are owned by Zhejiang Weitai Machinery Co., Ltd.). After establishing accounts with the power grid in the name of the party involved and purchasing electricity, it provides electricity to merchants within the park through power reselling. The park’s shared utility energy consumption (including central air conditioning, elevators, public lighting, etc.) was not resolved through property management fees, rent, or public revenues, but was instead fully apportioned to merchants by increasing the electricity charges.

The notice states that, based on the existing evidence, from January 2024 to May 2025, the party involved, by setting up sub-meters, used the name of “shared consumption + electricity losses” to collect electricity fees from merchants through methods such as charging 50% more shared electricity or setting fixed unit prices of 1.0–1.1 yuan per kWh, thereby obtaining sales revenue of 3,360,619.76 yuan (tax-exclusive). During the same period, the total expenditure for purchasing electricity from the power grid was 3,088,995.46 yuan (tax-exclusive). Of this, the electricity fee for the party involved’s own use of 314.72 yuan (verifiable portion, tax-exclusive) should be borne by it itself, so the actual cost of purchased electricity used for reselling to merchants was 3,088,680.74 yuan. By charging at a markup, the party involved appropriated the difference of 271,939.02 yuan between the sales revenue and the actual purchased electricity cost that the merchants should bear, and the entire 271,939.02 yuan constituted unlawful gains.

It was further found that, starting from June 2025, the party involved rectified the electricity resale charging model for the park: it stopped charging extra for “shared electricity” and fixed high prices, unified billing with merchants based on “the power grid’s benchmark electricity price with a 10% markup,” and recorded income and expenses month by month. From June to September 2025, after collecting electricity fees totaling (tax-exclusive) from merchants, the party involved’s receipts were insufficient to cover the electricity costs paid to the power grid in the same period, so it bore the loss itself and no new unlawful gains were formed.

On December 2, 2025, the Rui’an Municipal Market Regulation Administration served the party involved with the “Order to Refund Notice” (Rui Shi Jian Zhuan Tui [2025] No. 3), ordering it to refund within 30 days from receiving the notice all the unlawful amounts of 271939.02 yuan charged at a markup to terminal merchants. As of now, the party involved has refunded all amounts as required and submitted refund proof and merchants’ confirmation receipts.

Pursuant to Articles 66 of the “Electric Power Law of the People’s Republic of China” and Article 5, Paragraph 2 of the “Administrative Penalty Law of the People’s Republic of China,” the Rui’an Municipal Market Regulation Administration imposed a lighter penalty on the company involved, with total fines and confiscations amounting to 135,969.51 yuan.

Business registration information shows that Rui’an Financial Innovation Industrial Park Investment Co., Ltd. (formerly known as Rui’an Financial Innovation Industrial Park Co., Ltd.) was established in 2013, with Ye X, as the legal representative. Its business scope includes conducting investment activities with its own funds; property management; and non-residential real estate leasing.

Reporter Feng Yinlun from The Paper

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责任编辑：江钰涵