Actively finance to promote sustained economic recovery
According to data from the Ministry of Finance, the national general public budget revenue for the first eight months was 15179.6 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 10%; The national general public budget expenditure was 17138.2 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 3.8%.
The growth of fiscal revenue, driven by sustained economic recovery and overall improvement, is mainly due to the implementation of a large-scale value-added tax retention and refund policy in April last year, with more concentrated tax refunds, which lowered the base. Affected by this, tax revenue, especially domestic value-added tax, has significantly increased, correspondingly driving up the growth rate of fiscal revenue. At the same time, we will increase efficiency and implement proactive fiscal policies, take effective measures to reasonably accelerate the progress of fiscal expenditures, and promote sustained economic recovery.
In terms of income, in the first 8 months, the national tax revenue was 12788.5 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 12.9%; The national non tax revenue was 239.1 billion yuan, a year-on-year decrease of 3.6%.
In terms of tax types, domestic value-added tax increased by 70.7%, mainly due to a large number of tax refunds and a low base in the same period last year. The domestic consumption tax decreased by 9%, mainly due to the high base in the same period last year. The value-added tax and consumption tax on imported goods have decreased by 8.3%, while tariffs have decreased by 12.7%. After deducting the high base impact of the same period last year, it is basically in line with the growth trend of general trade imports.
"In the first eight months, the fiscal revenue showed a recovery and growth trend, which was not easy to come by in the context of economic recovery and increased uncertainty. As the largest tax type, the stable operation of value-added tax is crucial for stabilizing fiscal and tax revenue." said He Daixin, Director of the Finance Research Office of the Institute of Financial Strategy at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences.
From the perspective of local revenue, in the first 8 months, the general public budget revenue of the local government was 8210.9 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 10.3%. The income of the eastern, central, western, and northeastern regions increased by 10.2%, 6.9%, 13.2%, and 14.8% year-on-year, respectively. The income of 31 provinces has maintained positive growth year-on-year, with 3 provinces increasing by over 20%, 12 provinces increasing by between 10% and 20%, and 16 provinces experiencing single digit growth.
In terms of fiscal expenditure, the national general public budget expenditure increased by 3.8% year-on-year in the first eight months. Among them, social security and employment expenditure increased by 8.1%; Education expenditure increased by 4.5%; Health expenditure increased by 5.8%; Agriculture, forestry, and water expenditure increased by 2.9%; Housing security expenditure increased by 7.1%.
"The fiscal expenditure maintains a certain intensity, and key expenditures are guaranteed, especially social security, employment, education and other livelihood expenditures with a relatively large growth rate," said He Daixin.
Since the beginning of this year, in accordance with the requirements of "actively implementing fiscal policies to increase efficiency and focus on precision and sustainability", a number of phased tax and fee preferential policies have been continued and optimized, and a number of targeted new measures have been introduced, highlighting strong support for technological innovation, the real economy, and the development of small and medium-sized enterprises. A combination of tax and fee policies has been implemented to support the relief and development of enterprises. According to statistics, in the first seven months of this year, the newly added tax reductions and deferred tax refunds in China have reached 1.05 trillion yuan.
"Next, on the basis of coordinated and efficient policy implementation, we will further strengthen policy reserve research, make good use of policy space, find the right direction for development, focus on relieving difficulties for business entities, and better promote stable, healthy, and high-quality economic development," said Wang Dongwei, Deputy Minister of Finance.
Special bonds are an important means to drive the expansion of effective investment. Recently, various regions have accelerated the progress of issuance and use. In the first eight months, within the approved new debt limit, various regions issued special bonds worth 2945.5 billion yuan for project construction, mainly for the construction of key areas determined by the Party Central Committee and the State Council, such as municipal construction and industrial park infrastructure, social undertakings, transportation infrastructure, and affordable housing projects. This will promote the implementation of a large number of projects that benefit people's livelihoods, fill gaps, and strengthen weak areas.
He Daixin believes that special bonds have played an important role in driving the expansion of effective investment and maintaining stable economic operation. In the next stage, we need to strengthen the management of special bond projects and further leverage the role of special bond funds in stimulating social investment. According to the deployment, we aim to complete the issuance of new special bonds by the end of September this year, and the funds for special bonds used for project construction will be fully utilized by the end of October.
The relevant person in charge of the Ministry of Finance stated that in the next step, the Ministry of Finance will guide various regions to timely carry out the issuance and use of special bonds, continue to promote the construction of key projects, promote the formation of physical workload, and effectively support high-quality development.
