Guangming Network News (Reporter Yang Yanan Intern Li Yang) On February 1, the State Council Information Office held a press conference on the annual fiscal revenue and expenditure in 2023, and Vice Minister of Finance Wang Dongwei attended and introduced the relevant situation. Wang Dongwei said that the implementation of the national fiscal budget in 2023 will show five characteristics, including the recovery growth trend of fiscal revenue, the continuous strengthening of fiscal expenditure, and the further effectiveness of the special bond policy.
Fiscal revenue maintained a recovery growth trend. Benefiting from the economic rebound, coupled with the implementation of large-scale VAT refund in 2022 and lowering the base, fiscal revenue in 2023 will show a recovery growth. The national general public budget revenue exceeded 21 trillion yuan, an increase of 64%。In terms of localities, the income of the eastern, central, western and northeastern regions increased respectively. 7% and 12%, and all 31 provinces across the country achieved positive growth in fiscal revenue.
Fiscal spending continued to strengthen. At the beginning of 2023, the fiscal deficit ratio is set at 3%. In order to support post-disaster recovery and reconstruction and improve disaster prevention, mitigation and relief capabilities, an additional 1 trillion yuan of treasury bonds were issued in the fourth quarter, all of which were arranged to local governments through transfer payments. The national general public budget expenditure will reach 2746 trillion yuan, an increase of 54%。Strong safeguards in key areas, with spending on social security and employment increasing by 89 percent, and spending on education increased by 4 percent5%, and technology spending grew by 79%, and the expenditure on agriculture, forestry and water increased by 65 per cent, and spending in urban and rural communities increased by 5 per cent7%。
The tax and fee reduction policies continue to be optimized and improved. At the beginning of 2023, it was clarified as early as possible to continue and optimize some tax and fee policies, and in the second half of the year, according to changes in the economic situation, a number of due tax policies were extended, optimized, and improved, so as to further reduce the tax burden of business entities and accurately support the high-quality development of the real economy such as manufacturing. The scale of new tax and fee reductions and tax refunds and deferrals nationwide exceeded 2 throughout the year2 trillion yuan.
The effectiveness of the special bond policy has been further exerted. In 2023, the scale of local ** special bonds will be 38 trillion yuan, giving priority to supporting projects with a relatively high degree of maturity and projects under construction, focusing on key points, not "peppering", expanding the investment areas of special bonds, and expanding the investment areas of special bonds to 11 in 2023. The scope of special bonds used as project capital has also been expanded to 15 aspects, and the issuance and use of special bonds have been strengthened, which has effectively promoted the construction of a number of major projects that benefit the immediate and long-term benefits such as transportation, water conservancy and energy.
The bottom line of risk prevention has been further strengthened. On the one hand, with regard to local debts, we have promoted the formulation of a package of debt reduction plans, and paid close attention to the risk resolution of local hidden debts, so as to resolve the stock and curb the increase. On the other hand, we will increase transfer payments to local governments, and the scale of transfer payments will reach 1029 trillion yuan. The basic financial guarantee mechanism at the county level has been improved, and the policy of reward and subsidy funds has been improved, and the "three guarantees" expenditure pressure is greater and the financial resources are relatively weak. At the same time, guide the provincial level to sink financial resources and jointly build the bottom line of the "three guarantees" at the grassroots level.
In 2024, the basic trend of China's economic recovery and long-term improvement has not changed. From the perspective of fiscal revenue, with the continuous release of the effect of macroeconomic control policies and the solid progress of high-quality development, it will lay a solid foundation for the growth of fiscal revenue, and fiscal revenue will continue to recover growth. From the perspective of fiscal expenditure, the necessary intensity will continue to be maintained, and transfer payments to local governments will also maintain a certain scale. Wang Dongwei said.
*: Bright.com.