Full text: Report on China's central, local budgets (6)

Second, we will allow the deficit to increase.

Government deficit for 2016 is projected to be 2.18 trillion yuan nationwide, an increase of 560 billion yuan over 2015, and the deficit to GDP ratio is projected to be 3%, 0.6 percentage points higher than 2015. While appropriately increasing mandatory government expenditures, we will ensure the expanded deficit goes mainly towards filling the gap in government revenue left by tax and fee reductions, enabling the government to meet its expenditure responsibilities.

In addition, we will also allow a considerable rise in the special debt of local governments that is included in the budgets of government-managed funds, and we will put into use more carryover and surplus funds so as to ensure sufficient levels of both total spending and key area spending.

Third, we will adjust and optimize the structure of expenditures.

We will make the proper arrangements for expenditures aimed at promoting the wellbeing of the people in line with the principles of sustainability and ensuring basic needs. We will strictly control budgets for spending on official overseas visits, official vehicles, and official hospitality, while also reducing general expenditures such as those related to meetings. We will carry out rational assessments of policy-linked expenditures and unsustainable expenses, such as those made on overly ambitious commitments or on overly high expenditure standards during times of high revenue growth, and make prompt reductions on the basis of these assessments. We will improve the structure of transfer payments, focusing on cutting the number of special transfer payment items while making corresponding increases to general transfer payments aimed at creating more equitable access to basic public services as well as to transfer payments for old revolutionary base areas, areas with concentrations of ethnic minorities, border areas, and poor areas. Infrastructure investment by the central government will be more focused on basic public welfare projects within its purview, and less on small or miscellaneous projects. This investment is projected to be 500 billion yuan in 2016, which is an increase of 22.4 billion yuan over 2015.

Fourth, we will increase overall coordination in the use of fiscal funds.

We will appropriately trim the 2016 budgets for regions and departments that had a significant amount of government funds left over at the end of 2015. We will promptly reallocate funds that are no longer being used into key spending areas and reduce carryover expenditures produced by accrual accounting. We will move the carryover and surplus funds of government-managed fund budgets that exceed stipulated ratios into general public budgets so that they can be utilized in a coordinated way. We will also raise the proportion of funds transferred from the budgets for state capital operations into general public budgets. At the same time, we will make innovations in the way the government carries out its expenditures with a view towards increasing efficiency.

The primary policies regarding government expenditures are as follows:

Education

We will further improve the mechanisms for ensuring funding for urban and rural compulsory education and set a unified benchmark for public funding per student in compulsory education schools. We will continue to carry out major projects such as the initiative for improving conditions in badly built or poorly operated rural schools providing compulsory education, and eligible students from families with financial difficulties will be the first to be exempted from tuition and miscellaneous fees at regular senior high schools. We will continue to implement the quality improvement plan to develop modern vocational education, encouraging local governments to establish sound systems for allocating funds to vocational colleges based on student enrollment, improving conditions in secondary vocational schools, training a contingent of teachers strong in both theory and practice, and promoting the integration of vocational education with industry work as well as cooperation between colleges and businesses. We will support the development of kindergartens open to all children. We will improve the budgetary appropriation system for institutions of higher learning and guide these institutions in improving their quality, optimizing their structure, and developing their own unique characteristics. We will improve the system of policies for providing financial aid to students from poor families and make such aid more targeted.

Science and technology

We will complete the optimization and integration of science and technology programs financed by the central government, finish building an open and unified national science and technology management platform, and establish a mechanism for entrusting the management of research programs to specialized agencies. We will give a high level of support to the National Natural Science Foundation of China, major science and technology projects, and key research and development programs. We will accelerate the implementation of the national seed fund for encouraging the application of scientific and technological advances and put in place loan default compensation mechanisms for banks in order to encourage them to provide loans to medium, small, and micro businesses. We will promote the establishment of a number of national laboratories in important innovation fields. We will facilitate the reform and development of research institutions by improving the mechanisms for providing them with consistent support. We will put in place management mechanisms for post-research program subsidies.

Social security and employment

In 2016, the central government will subsidize local governments in raising the level of subsistence allowances by 5% in urban areas and 8% in rural areas. We will conduct research on the establishment of a sound system for providing basic necessities to extreme poverty groups as well as mechanisms for guaranteeing funding for these efforts. We will support localities in comprehensively establishing systems for providing living allowances to needy persons with disabilities and for providing care service subsidies to people with serious disabilities. We will ensure the implementation of benefits for entitled groups and support the proper settlement of demobilized military personnel.

In consideration of factors such as the rates of increases in average wages and price levels, as of January 1, 2016, pension benefits for retirees of enterprises, Party and government offices, and public institutions will be increased by around 6.5%, with appropriate preference given to those who have retired some time ago and are on relatively low pension benefits as well as those who have retired from enterprises in hardship and remote areas. We will put in place a mechanism for making regular adjustments to basic salaries and promote coordination between the benefit increases for those employed and retired. We will improve the personal account side of the old-age insurance scheme for workers, ensure that it remains in actuarial balance, establish more transparent and easily understood collection and payment systems, and further improve incentives for encouraging people to contribute more. We will also improve the reform plan for the old-age insurance systems and conduct research on putting the social pension of workers under national unified management.

We will improve policies that encourage college graduates to seek employment in small and medium-sized high-tech, high-innovation enterprises, start their own businesses, or find employment at the community level in urban and rural areas, and we will expand the channels through which college graduates can look for jobs. We will conduct research on policies for regulating public-service job positions, set up long-term mechanisms to support the employment of groups having difficulties in finding jobs, and help migrant workers obtain equal access to public employment services.

Health care

We will set up sound, sustainable mechanisms for various parties to reasonably share the costs of health insurance. We will raise the annual government subsidies for basic health insurance for rural and non-working urban residents from 380 yuan to 420 yuan per person, and increase annual personal contributions from 120 yuan to 150 yuan per person, with the increases to be mainly used to provide better basic medical insurance and boost support for the major disease insurance scheme for rural and urban non-working residents. We will increase government subsidies for basic public health services from 40 yuan to 45 yuan per person per year. We will integrate the basic health insurance systems and their management systems for rural and non-working urban residents. We will comprehensively advance the reform of health insurance payouts to help control medical expenses and regulate medical treatment practices. We will press ahead with the reform of public hospitals and community-level health care institutions, adjust and optimize the distribution of medical resources in conjunction with the new type of urbanization, and put in place a tiered diagnosis and treatment system. We will work to reduce the burden of medical expenses on low-income patients suffering from major or critical diseases by providing them with assistance and ensuring such assistance is better linked with other health insurance programs. (mo