(Combating New Crown Pneumonia) China's Ministry of Finance: Central Government Increases Local Transfer Payments
China News Service, Beijing, February 24 (Xia Bin), Assistant Minister of Finance of the People's Republic of China Owen Han said at a press conference in Beijing on the 24th that after the outbreak of the new crown pneumonia epidemic, some places were particularly affected by the epidemic, Fiscal revenue and expenditure have been impacted in stages. The Ministry of Finance has introduced a number of measures to ease the pressure on local fiscal expenditures, including the central government's efforts to increase transfer payments to local governments.
Irving Han pointed out that the local financial departments have vigorously reduced general expenditures, made every effort to raise funds, optimized the expenditure structure, and coordinated arrangements for various fiscal revenues and expenditures to ensure the stable operation of finances on the premise of prioritizing protection and control funds.
He further explained that, from the perspective of the central finances, the first is to increase the intensity of local transfer payments. Focus on increasing the intensity of local general transfer payments to alleviate the pressure on local fiscal expenditures.
The second is to speed up the disbursement of funds. For example, in order to support local epidemic prevention and control, and to ensure basic wages, operation and basic livelihoods, the central government has recently allocated 70 billion yuan (RMB, the same below) for balanced transfer payments and pre-allocated county-level payments. Funds for the basic financial protection mechanism were 40.6 billion yuan.
The third is to strengthen the treasury dispatch management. The Ministry of Finance paid close attention to the situation of local treasury funds, the balance of fiscal revenues and expenditures in Hubei and other provinces affected by the epidemic, strengthened fund dispatch, and ensured that funds such as epidemic prevention and control and “three guarantees” were timely and fully allocated.
Irving Han revealed that as of February 23, all levels of finance had allocated 99.5 billion yuan for epidemic prevention and control, of which the central government had arranged a total of 25.52 billion yuan.
"Economic development is the source of fiscal revenue. We believe that as the epidemic situation improves and production gradually recovers, with the strong support of economic development, finances across the country can achieve smooth operation." Owenhan said. (Finish)