Xinhua News Agency, Beijing, April 20: Question: The pressure on the balance of payments has increased. How can the finances keep functioning and promote people's livelihood?

　　Xinhua News Agency "Xinhua Perspectives" reporters Shen Cheng, Wang Ona, Hou Wenkun

　　According to data released by the Ministry of Finance on the 20th, in the first quarter, the national general public budget revenue reached 4.5984 trillion yuan, a year-on-year decrease of 14.3%.

　　Between the reduction of "revenue" and the increase of "expenditure", the pressure on fiscal revenue and expenditure balance has been further increased. On the one hand, due to the impact of the epidemic, fiscal revenue is declining; on the other hand, in order to hedge the impact of the epidemic, fiscal policy needs to be strengthened, and grassroots operations and people's livelihood development need real gold and silver protection. How to deal with a more severe situation? "Xinhua Vision" reporter interviewed authoritative persons and experts.

　　The influence of multiple factors, the national fiscal revenue fell in the first quarter

　　As a "barometer" of economic activity, fiscal revenue in the first quarter fell by 14.3% year-on-year, which is not surprising to many experts and scholars.

　　Yang Zhiyong, deputy dean of the Academy of Economic and Strategic Studies of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, said that due to the epidemic, China ’s economy once pressed the “pause button” in the first quarter, which affected areas such as consumption, investment, and foreign trade, and declined to varying degrees. "This decline in fiscal revenue basically reflects the economic situation."

　　According to Liu Jinyun, director of the Treasury Payment Center of the Ministry of Finance, the national fiscal revenue declined in the first quarter, which was affected by multiple factors. "Among them, the reduction of the tax base affected by the epidemic, as well as measures to reduce or exempt taxes and suspend taxes in support of epidemic prevention and control, supply, corporate bailout, and resumption of production, have reduced the national fiscal revenue growth rate by about 10 percentage points."

　　In terms of industries, the tax revenues of industries that are more affected by the epidemic have fallen significantly. In the first quarter, taxes on accommodation, catering, transportation, culture, sports, and entertainment fell by 33.2%, 27%, and 19.6%, respectively.

　　"The impact of the epidemic on fiscal revenue began to show clearly in February and expanded in March." Liu Jinyun said that the national fiscal revenue for each month from January to March decreased by 3.9%, 21.4%, and 26.1% respectively.

　　In addition, due to the consolidation of the effect of tax reduction and fee reduction, the effect of value-added tax reduction and income reduction continued to be released, which lowered the national fiscal revenue growth rate by about 5 percentage points. According to data released by the State Administration of Taxation, the national tax cuts and fees have exceeded 400 billion yuan in the first two months of this year.

　　The financial "transcripts" recently announced by various regions have also declined to varying degrees. Statistics show that in the first quarter, Beijing and Shandong's general public budget revenue fell 11% and 10.1% year-on-year, respectively.

　　How to maintain operation and promote people's livelihood?

　　Facing the severe fiscal revenue and expenditure situation, some localities, especially grassroots financial departments, feel quite deeply.

　　Some county-level financial officials in the central region told reporters that since this year, in order to actively respond to the epidemic, the establishment of isolation points, the purchase of epidemic prevention materials, and the purchase of hospital first-aid equipment are not "small amounts". , The pressure to keep running further increased. "

　　Experts and people in the industry suggested paying special attention to the operation of local governments, especially grass-roots finances, and increasing support to ensure the normal operation of grass-roots governments and the "non-discounting" of various people's livelihood expenditures.

　　Transfer funds in a timely manner, strengthen supervision and guidance to local areas, gradually increase the retention ratio of local fiscal funds, and strengthen monitoring and supervision of local treasury operations ... To support local governments to effectively ensure basic livelihood, wages, and operations, the central government ’s financial Actions have taken a series of measures.

　　"On the basis of the transfer payments of 6.1 trillion yuan that have been issued in advance in the fourth quarter of last year, the balance of 70 billion yuan has been pre-allocated since this year, and the county-level basic financial resources guarantee mechanism has 40.6 billion yuan of supplementary funds to enhance the local financial fund guarantee capacity. Wang Kebing, a first-level inspector of the Budget Department of the Ministry of Finance, said that in addition, some funds for central infrastructure investment and the promotion of the resumption of production and production of enterprises have been released to promote stable economic and social development.

　　At the same time, local financial departments at all levels have introduced measures to adapt to local conditions, "open source" and "throttling" simultaneously, actively respond to the pressure of revenue and expenditure, and strive to ensure the key expenditures of grassroots operations and people's livelihood development:

　　Focusing on improving the security mechanism, strengthening the management of the treasury, and compiling the budget, etc., Shanxi introduced 20 specific measures to ensure the smooth operation of the grassroots finance.

　　In Guangxi, the conference fees, training fees and overseas (foreign) expenditures of the general public budgets of various departments of the autonomous region are reduced by 20% on the basis of the budget at the beginning of the year, and other non-key and non-rigid projects are reduced by 5%. And insist that the government live a "tight life".

　　In Dongguan, Guangdong, “ten sums of money” such as municipal finance, collective economy, social security, medical insurance, disability insurance, civil air defense, sports lottery, blessings, charity, and state-owned enterprises and private enterprises capital were used in a coordinated manner, focusing on education, medical care, employment, social security Waiting for people's livelihood "everything".

　　Wang Kebing said that the Ministry of Finance will closely track the operation of local finances, urge localities to accelerate the disbursement and use of funds, and effectively increase support for areas with severe epidemics and difficult areas.

　　How to resolve the pressure of fiscal revenue and expenditure?

　　In the eyes of many people in the industry, due to the large-scale tax and fee reduction measures implemented in China in recent years, while significantly reducing the burden on enterprises, it has also brought about fiscal revenue cuts. The sudden emergence of the new coronary pneumonia epidemic, the increasing downward pressure on the economy and other factors have superimposed, "the problem of fiscal revenue and expenditure contradictions is particularly prominent this year."

　　"On the one hand, fiscal revenue is declining; on the other hand, in order to hedge the impact of the epidemic, fiscal policy needs to be further strengthened, and relying on ordinary fiscal revenue alone is not enough." Yang Zhiyong said.

　　Raise the deficit rate, issue special anti-epidemic government bonds, and increase local government special bonds ... The Politburo meeting held recently has clarified the direction of the next fiscal policy effort.

　　"Improving the fiscal deficit rate and issuing special national bonds can directly and effectively supplement the fiscal funds" ammunition. "Yang Zhiyong said that the scale of these policy funds is expected to reach trillions of dollars, which can effectively resolve income and expenditure contradictions, supplement local financial resources, and help the epidemic. Industries and regions with greater influence have overcome difficulties and promoted economic recovery and social development.

　　Wang Kebing revealed that the central government will study to properly raise the fiscal deficit rate in accordance with the requirements of the Politburo meeting, concentrate on using part of the central stock funds, and make overall plans to increase local transfer payments.

　　In addition, experts said that fiscal revenue and economic operations are highly correlated. With the orderly progress of resumption of production and production, the economic operation is gradually restored, and the state of fiscal revenue is expected to improve.

　　"The decline in fiscal revenue will gradually narrow." Liu Jinyun said. In Wang Kebing's view, the impact of the epidemic is periodic. With the effective control of the epidemic situation, enterprises are speeding up the resumption of production and production, and various tasks of economic and social development are on track, fiscal revenue will return to normal, and the pressure on revenue and expenditure will gradually be reduced.