NANJING, March 3 (Xinhua) -- The provincial government of east China's Jiangsu has released a slew of policies to reduce taxes and fees totaling nearly 75 billion yuan (about 10.7 billion U.S. dollars) for businesses affected by the novel coronavirus outbreak.

The province will lower or waive employers' contributions to the old-age pension, unemployment and workplace safety insurance schemes by 54.3 billion yuan, with a five-month exemption for micro, small and medium-sized enterprises from February to June.

During this period, 13 cities in the province will halve employers' contributions to the basic medical insurance scheme, with reduced contributions to medical security premiums estimated at 14.1 billion yuan.

In addition, real estate tax and urban land use tax of hotel, catering, entertainment, transportation and tourism enterprises will be scrapped in the first half of 2020 to help them overcome difficulties posed by the epidemic, the government said.  ■