Revenue grew steadily, expenditure accelerated, and key areas such as epidemic prevention and control and grass-roots “Three Guarantees” were effectively guaranteed. Recently, all localities have successively released the fiscal revenue and expenditure data for the first half of the year. With the sustained and stable recovery of the economy and the implementation of a series of powerful and effective policies and measures, the cornerstone of local fiscal revenue growth has been continuously consolidated, and the expenditure has been more accurate and in place.
Rapid income growth
According to the fiscal revenue and expenditure data in the first half of the year released by various regions, the fiscal revenue of various regions increased steadily, the quality and efficiency continued to improve, the revenue of most regions increased by more than 20% year-on-year, and there was a high growth of more than 30% in some regions.
Data show that in the first half of the year, Shanghai’s general public budget revenue was 473.151 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 20.2%; Fujian’s general public budget revenue was 204.282 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 30.3%; Hunan’s general public budget revenue was 171.368 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 22.6%; Shandong’s general public budget revenue was 430 billion yuan, an increase of 22.2% and 15% respectively over the same period in 2020 and 2019.
“On the whole, local fiscal revenue has maintained strong growth. The scale and growth rate of revenue have not only returned to the state before the epidemic, but also showed a new positive trend, which is not only the embodiment of economic recovery in fiscal revenue, but also shows that the positive fiscal policy continues to be effective.” He Daixin, director of the Financial Research Office of the Institute of financial strategy of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, said.
Tax is the barometer of economy, which can best reflect the quality of income. Since the beginning of this year, with the steady growth of fixed asset investment, the overall recovery of the service industry, the continuous release of consumer demand, and the substantial growth of tax revenue.
In the first half of the year, the tax revenue of Tianjin increased by 22% year-on-year, accounting for 73% of the general public budget revenue. The profitability of enterprises was better than the national average. From January to may, the growth rate of total profits of Industrial Enterprises above designated size was 44.9 percentage points higher than that of the whole country, and 90% of the industries realized profits.
In the first half of the year, Jilin’s value-added tax increased by 29.5%, enterprise income tax increased by 24.8% and deed tax increased by 25%, with a total contribution rate to tax growth of 75.8%“ Since the beginning of the year, Jilin has continued to accelerate project construction, stabilize industrial operation and stimulate consumption recovery. The main economic indicators have increased rapidly, and the foundation for income growth in the province has been continuously consolidated. ” Jilin Provincial Department of Finance official said.
Jiangsu’s tax revenue from January to June was 463.1 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 19.8%, which effectively boosted the increase of fiscal revenue“ Especially in the context of continuous tax reduction and fee reduction, the value-added tax, enterprise income tax and individual income tax closely related to enterprise production and operation and residents’ income have maintained an increase of more than 20%, reflecting the steady improvement of the quality and efficiency of economic operation. ” Jiangsu Provincial Department of Finance official said.
“In the first half of the year, the economy recovered steadily, and local fiscal revenue rose accordingly. Meanwhile, the main sources of income remained stable, the average growth rate of the three major taxes exceeded 20%, and non tax income was driven accordingly. In addition, the standardized management of tax collection and management has been improved, which has played a positive role in stabilizing the economic operation and balancing the tax burden. Under the influence of multiple factors, local fiscal revenue has maintained a high growth rate. ” He Daixin said.
Guarantee key expenditure
Comparing the revenue and expenditure data of various places, it is found that since this year, the progress of fiscal expenditure in many places has accelerated, and the growth rate of fiscal expenditure in some places is significantly lower than that of income.
In the first half of the year, Beijing’s general public budget expenditure was 371.4 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 0.6%, 53.5% of the annual budget and 3.5 percentage points beyond the time schedule; Hubei’s general public budget expenditure was 407.2 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 14.9%, 50.9% of the budget at the beginning of the year; Shaanxi’s general public budget expenditure was 307.83 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 6.4%, accounting for 58.6% of the annual budget.
“Compared with fiscal revenue, the growth rate of local fiscal expenditure has slowed down, mainly because of the high intensity of anti epidemic expenditure in the first half of 2020. It is normal for the growth rate to slow down in the same period this year.” He Daixin said that at the same time, since the second half of last year, efforts to reduce non urgent and non essential expenditures have been fruitful. Under the condition of ensuring the expenditure in key areas, especially the people’s livelihood, some expenditure scale has been reduced, and the basic balance of financial operation has been achieved.
From the expenditure details released by local governments, all localities have earnestly implemented the government’s requirements of “living a tight life”, adhered to strict management and control of fiscal expenditure and guaranteed key points, and effectively ensured the implementation of key livelihood areas and major decisions.
Heilongjiang strictly controls general expenses such as official reception, going abroad on business, buses and meetings. At the same time, we strengthened the overall planning of financial resources and continued to focus on key tasks such as people’s livelihood. In the first half of the year, people’s livelihood expenditure was 215.05 billion yuan, accounting for 86.8% of the general public budget expenditure.
Hubei’s fiscal expenditure has maintained a high intensity, and the proportion of people’s livelihood expenditure in general public budget expenditure has remained at more than 75%, fully ensuring the expenditure needs of basic people’s livelihood such as pension, employment, education and medical treatment.
In the first half of the year, Fujian’s expenditure on people’s livelihood accounted for more than 70% of the general public budget expenditure, reaching 76%, with a total expenditure of 1992.72 billion yuan. Among them, the expenditure on housing security, education, social security and employment increased by 38.7%, 16.5% and 9.3% respectively year-on-year.
The effective guarantee of local expenditure in key areas is inseparable from the strong support of direct funds. This year, the total amount of central to local transfer payments was 2.8 trillion yuan. In the first half of the year, the central government issued 2.59 trillion yuan, of which 2.506 trillion yuan has been allocated to fund users, accounting for 96.8% of the funds issued by the central government.
“This efficiency is relatively high, which shows that the local government has become a ‘passer-by God of wealth’ in accordance with the requirements, does not become a ‘hands off shopkeeper’, and allocates the central financial funds in time.” Bai Jingming, a researcher at the Chinese Academy of financial Sciences, said that the key to the second half of the year is to get through the “last kilometer” of direct funds, that is, local grass-roots governments should spend money on ensuring residents’ employment, market subjects, basic people’s livelihood and grass-roots wages, and spend money well and in place through innovative and perfect mechanisms.
Difficulties and challenges remain
“With the gradual weakening of the base effect, the growth rate of local fiscal revenue will fall in the second half of the year, and the fiscal revenue and expenditure pressure in some regions is expected to increase.” According to he Daixin’s analysis, on the one hand, affected by natural disasters such as floods, fluctuations in external demand and rising commodity prices, some local sources of income have decreased; On the other hand, expenditures for disaster prevention and epidemic prevention, livelihood welfare and major projects must be fully guaranteed, and local fiscal revenue and expenditure still faces many difficulties and challenges.
Bai Jingming believes that policies and measures such as direct funds, tax reduction and fee reduction will play an important role in stimulating economic growth and alleviating the pressure on fiscal revenue and expenditure. “Tax reduction and fee reduction will enable enterprises to have more funds for investment and R & D, and promote enterprise transformation and upgrading. At the same time, increase enterprise income, promote employment, raise workers’ wages and effectively stimulate consumption. It can also regulate government behavior, optimize the business environment, stabilize market expectations, and effectively stimulate enterprise investment vitality and investment enthusiasm “.
In fact, when the economic work was deployed at the beginning of the year, the state had made a series of countermeasures to the expected difficulties and challenges. This year’s government work report requires that macro policies such as tax cuts should continue to bail out market players and maintain necessary support. This year, the Ministry of Finance continued to implement the institutional tax reduction policy, timely extended the implementation period of VAT reduction and other policies for small-scale taxpayers, and further strengthened tax reduction and exemption for large, small and micro enterprises and individual industrial and commercial households, so as to help market players recover their vitality and enhance their vitality.
All localities have also come up with practical measures to actively take preventive measures. The relevant person in charge of Jiangxi Provincial Department of Finance said that in the second half of the year, we will accelerate the issuance and use of government bonds, give play to the guiding role of special bonds as project capital, and support the construction of “two new and one heavy”; We will fully implement the policy of structural tax reduction and fee reduction, effectively reduce the burden on market subjects and stimulate market vitality.
Chongqing will continue to adjust and optimize the revenue and expenditure space, do a good job in ensuring wages, operation and transfer, and basic people’s livelihood, and innovate the investment and financing system and mechanism.
Guangxi continued to increase its efforts to promote expenditure, made every effort to coordinate funds, maintained an appropriate expenditure intensity, and unswervingly adhered to ensuring key points and improving people’s livelihood on the basis of the overall rapid growth of fiscal expenditure.
“In the face of uncertainty, local active fiscal policies should be improved in quality, efficiency and sustainability, further implement the policy of reducing taxes and fees, implement the normalized direct funding mechanism, and ensure that funds effectively alleviate local fiscal pressure. At the same time, we will do a good job in government debt management and monitoring, timely warn debt risk points, and ensure that local finance maintains a stable operation throughout the year. ” He Daixin said.
Post time: Aug-03-2021