China may struggle to meet fiscal target
Print Edition
CHINA may struggle to meet this year’s fiscal revenue target, the finance minister warned yesterday.
The central treasury received 2.9 trillion yuan (US$465 billion) from January to May, a year-on-year increase of 6.3 percent and 0.7 percentage points lower than the budgeted target, Lou Jiwei said as the minister delivered a report on the central government’s final accounts in 2013 to the Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress for review.
This year’s budgeted growth in central fiscal revenue is 7 percent.
The government is “under heavy pressure,” Lou said.
Difficulties lie in the downward pressure on the economy and the program to replace business tax with value-added tax in some service sectors, which will reduce tax revenue to some degree, he explained.
Despite the poor central performance, total national fiscal revenue has reached 6.12 trillion yuan, an increase of 8.8 percent and higher than the 8 percent budgeted for.
“Economic growth is stable and performance remains in a reasonable range,” Lou said. “The general situation has met expectations.”
According to his report, the central treasury had an annual revenue of 6.02 trillion yuan in 2013, up 7.2 percent from 2012.
Although the actual revenue in 2013 was higher than the budgeted one, the annual growth was lower than 9.4 percent in 2012 and 20.8 percent in 2011.
The revenue from several major taxes, including VAT and consumer tax on domestic and imported products as well as the customs, were all lower than budgeted figures. But the revenue from corporate and individual income taxes exceeded the set targets, thanks to corporations’ unexpected profit growth.
Meanwhile, the central government’s spending continued to rise. In 2013, the figure stood at 6.85 trillion yuan, 6.8 percent higher than in 2012.
The deficit of central government was about 850 billion yuan as the budgeted goal and deficit of the whole country stood at 1.2 trillion yuan, accounting for 2.1 percent of gross domestic product, according to the report.
Although central fiscal revenue saw slower growth, the central government continued to expand spending on sectors directly linked to people’s livelihoods, such as health services and social insurance.
Expenses on health services, social insurance and cultural services increased by 26.4 percent, 14.2 percent and 4.3 percent respectively.
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