Full text: Report on China's central, local budgets (13)

It should be noted that according to the revised Budget Law, after the beginning of a new financial year and before the approval of the draft central government budgets by the National People's Congress, arrangements may be made for the following expenditures:

carryover expenditures from the previous year;

basic expenditures of government departments, project expenditures, and transfer payments to lower-level governments that must be made in the current year, after referring to the amount of budgetary expenditures for the corresponding period of the previous year;

expenditures for which payment constitutes a legally prescribed obligation; and

expenditures to be used for dealing with natural disasters and other emergencies.

Based on the above stipulations, in January 2015, the central government made expenditures to the value of 751.2 billion yuan from the general public budget. This figure includes 132.9 billion yuan spent at the central level and 618.3 billion yuan in tax rebates and transfer payments made to local governments.

III. Properly Implementing the New Budget Law and Carrying Out the Work on Fiscal Reform and Development

1. Strengthening the legal framework for managing public finances

Study and training sessions and activities to inform about the newly revised Budget Law will be carried out to ensure that the guidelines, principles, and each specific provision of the law are thoroughly understood and the rule of law consciousness in budgetary work is strengthened. We will consciously follow the provisions of the Budget Law as our code of conduct as we exercise budgetary management, and perform our duties including managing the public finances in strict accordance with the law.

We will step up the intensity of work to revise the regulations on the enforcement of the Budget Law and improve systems such as the general transfer payments system according to the principles set in the Budget Law and its authorization.

We will coordinate the enforcement of the new Budget Law with fiscal and tax reforms, strengthening the links between concrete plans for fiscal and tax reforms and both the Budget Law and the building of institutions that support it.

In accordance with the plans for implementing the principle of law-based taxation, we will assist with legislative work on real estate tax, environmental protection tax, and tonnage tax, and actively promote the upgrading of existing interim tax regulations to laws. Our work regarding the revision of the Law on Tax Collection and Administration will be properly carried out.

2. Improving and strengthening macro-level regulation through fiscal policy

We will carry out timely and appropriate anticipatory adjustments and fine-tuning on the basis of ensuring the continuity and stability of our policies; place greater weight on making targeted measures based on the proper exercise of macro-regulation to keep the economy performing within an appropriate range; intensify efforts to carry out structural adjustments; prioritize the provision of support for areas of weakness; strike a balance between maintaining steady growth and restructuring; keep market expectations stable; prevent economic growth from slipping into a downward spiral; and create a good macro environment for ensuring steady economic development.

We will work actively to support efforts to discover and foster new areas of strong consumer activity that have huge market potential and great future prospects, improve and properly implement related fiscal and tax policies, promote information technology consumption, and stimulate the development of the elderly care, fitness, cultural, creative, and design industries.

We will advance reform of the investment and financing systems; make innovations in methods of investment and financing; move more quickly to launch projects that demonstrate the PPP model in urban infrastructure development, the public rental housing sector, and in business transformation of local government financing companies; and effectively unleash the potential of nongovernmental investment.

We will improve the policies and measures for boosting foreign trade, support increases in the export of technology, equipment, and services, cultivate new strengths to give us an advantage in foreign trade, and encourage increases in the import of advanced technology and equipment, key parts and components, and resources that China lacks.

We will work hard to improve the efficiency and quality of overseas investment, give impetus to the implementation of major projects for strengthening infrastructure connectivity with our neighboring countries, encourage international cooperation on advanced technology, and help competitive industries to step out onto the global stage.

3. Implementing the overall plan for deepening reform of the fiscal and tax systems

We will, in keeping with the requirements for deepening reform of the budget management system, review and regulate tax relief and other preferential policies, carry out medium-term fiscal planning, and reform and improve the transfer payments system. We will raise the percentage of earnings from state capital operations that are turned over to public finance, and research into bringing more SOEs under the management of state capital operations budgets. We will promote sustainability in the operations of social security funds on the basis of actuarial balance. We will formulate and introduce the guidelines for fully promoting openness in budgetary work, and go further to make budgetary work more transparent. We will research into increasing the number of government departments required to report their budgets to the NPC.

We will strive to extend the trials for replacing business tax with VAT to the construction, real estate, financial, and consumer service industries; and allow businesses to deduct the VAT on their new real estate purchases or on their payments for real estate rentals, and combine and lower VAT rates. We will continue to adjust the scope and rates of consumption tax, and take measures where appropriate to levy consumption tax on retail and wholesale instead of production. We will organize the implementation of reform of the resource tax and fees on coal, and develop plans for reforming resource taxes and fees on other types of resources aside from crude oil, natural gas, and coal. For the reform of personal income tax, we will develop a plan that integrates taxation based on both adjusted gross income as well as specific types of incomes.

When carrying out reforms in VAT and consumption tax, we will find a way to improve revenue distribution between the central and local governments. We will develop and introduce guidelines for appropriately dividing powers and spending responsibilities between the central and local governments. (Mo