China’s years-long fight against the cutthroat price wars plaguing key industries has prompted the deployment of a more powerful tool – cost accounting – as the authorities also renew efforts to help small businesses receive delayed payments.The country’s top economic planning agency – the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) – and the State Administration for Market Regulation (SAMR) publicly released a notice on Thursday on tackling “low-price disorderly competition” in important industrial products.It contained specifics of the cost accounting required to determine if products are priced below cost.“Current price law contains only broad-strokes measures and there is a need to clarify cost accounting requirements … market players should compete on quality and innovation, not just pricing,” the NDRC said in a related questions-and-answers document. It added that “superior quality should command a premium price”.The notice said cost accounting should be based on costs incurred during production, using industry averages as a reference, and they should be calculated by industrial associations and reviewed by the NDRC and SAMR.Cost calculations should also use audited accounting records or properly documented bookkeeping provided by producers. Industry average costs could be determined through a census or sampling approach, the two agencies said, adding that for industries with regional disparities, calculations could be conducted on a regional basis.