3. We strived to improve the effectiveness of oversight. The NPC's oversight of the State Council, the Supreme People's Court and the Supreme People's Procuratorate is oversight with the force of law carried out in the name of the country and the people. We are always subservient to and serve the work of the Party and the state, carry out our activities in accordance with the law and prescribed procedures and exercise our responsibilities and powers collectively. We submit pertinent and practicable comments and suggestions based on thorough survey and research work and a great deal of firsthand information, working to urge concerned parties to solve problems that have become common and seem to indicate an unhealthy trend and to urge them to set up a permanent mechanism to address such problems. The State Council, the Supreme People's Court and the Supreme People's Procuratorate pay close attention to the comments and suggestions of the Standing Committee and have done a great deal of painstaking work to address them. With the concerted effort of all parties involved, real progress has been made through the oversight work of the NPC in solving certain problems with an overall impact that have long awaited resolution.
We promoted resolution of the problem of arrears in export tax rebate payments. The Standing Committee carried out thorough surveys and studies and then made three suggestions to the State Council in 2003: The first was to make sure that from now on all tax rebate payments are paid on time. The second was to use surplus revenue from the central government budget to clear up longstanding arrears as soon as possible. The third was to reform the tax rebate mechanism. In accordance with the recommendations of the Standing Committee, the State Council took a total of 242.2billion yuan from the surplus revenue four years in row to clear up longstanding arrears and promptly passed a decision to reform the export tax rebate system. These efforts have contributed greatly to the resolution of the problems of arrears in tax rebate payments.
We promoted resolution of the problem of wages in arrears for rural migrant workers in cities and other workers. Inspection of the enforcement of the Construction Law and comments submitted by ordinary citizens through letters and visits revealed in 2003 that there was a problem of wages in arrears for rural migrant workers in cities. The Standing Committee called on governments at all levels and concerned departments to adopt effective measures to solve the problem. Through inspection of enforcement of the Law on Labor Unions and the Labor Law, we clearly suggested basic resolution of the problem of long overdue employee wages and payments to the social security fund by the end of 2007. Statistics show that as of the end of 2006 all wages due to rural migrant workers in cities in arrears since 2003 or before, totaling 33.7 billion yuan, had been paid. As of the end of 2007, most provincial-level localities had basically solved the problem of long overdue employee wages. A small number of these localities with old industrial bases in their jurisdictions where the task of clearing up long overdue wages was particularly heavy expect to basically clear up the arrears in the first half of 2008.
We promoted improvement in production safety. In 2005 we inspected the implementation of the Law on Production Safety. The Standing Committee clearly proposed that the number of major large-scale gas explosions in coalmines should be greatly reduced within about two years and that strong efforts should be made to resolve the problem of small, illegal coalmines within three years to address the serious problem of coalmine safety in China. The State Council attached great importance to this proposal and promptly called an executive conference to carry out a special study and make arrangements for production safety work. As of the end of 2007, 11,200 small illegal coalmines had been closed. The number of major, large-scale gas explosions was down 46.3% and the number of fatalities down 65.4% in 2007 compared to the figures for 2005.
We promoted fairness in the judicial system. We encouraged and supported the Supreme People's Court, the Supreme People's Procuratorate and the Ministry of Public Security in their joint special campaign to completely clear up the problem of people being held for excessively long periods of time without sentencing, an issue that has drawn a strong reaction from deputies and the general public. Specific regulations were formulated to correct and prevent the holding of suspects without sentencing for excessively long periods of time, requiring notice be given of the amount of time a suspect can be held without being charged and notice be given when that time has expired, and setting up a system for people to bring suit when an uncharged suspect has not been released after the specified period of time has elapsed and assign legal responsibility for such action. This basically cleared up longstanding cases of persons held for excessively long periods of time without being charged. In order to promote fairness in the judicial system through institutions and mechanisms, we called on judicial and procuratorial organs to address the issue beginning with the job positions and links where problems are likely to occur, make sure all institutions are sound and improve internal oversight mechanisms. The Supreme People's Court and the Supreme People's Procuratorate attached great importance to the opinions of the Standing Committee. The courts improved their oversight system and oversight measures in terms of important links such as the opening of a case, hearing of a case, enforcement of the judgment and judgment oversight and key areas such as standardization of the actions of judges. The procuratorates improved regular oversight, launched special investigations and reviews, and improved training for procuratorial staff, attaining positive results. In addition, we urged relevant authorities to effectively address the practical staffing and financial difficulties of lower-level courts and procuratorates.