Localities have successively announced fiscal revenue and expenditure data for the first half of the year-

  Increasing income and reducing expenditure to protect people's livelihood needs

  Our reporter Li Hualin

  Income has grown steadily, expenditures have accelerated, and key areas such as epidemic prevention and control, and the “three guarantees” at the grassroots level have been strongly guaranteed.

Recently, various localities have successively announced fiscal revenue and expenditure data for the first half of the year. As the economy continues to recover steadily, and a series of powerful and effective policy measures have been implemented, the cornerstone of local fiscal revenue growth has continued to be consolidated, and expenditures have become more precise and in place.

  Faster revenue growth

  Judging from the fiscal revenue and expenditure data released by various localities in the first half of the year, local fiscal revenues have grown steadily, and quality and efficiency have continued to improve. Revenues in most regions have increased by more than 20% year-on-year, and some regions have experienced high growth of more than 30%.

  Statistics 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 general Public budget revenue was 430 billion yuan, an increase of 22.2% and 15% over the same period in 2020 and 2019, respectively.

  "In general, the fiscal revenue of various regions 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. This is not only a manifestation of economic recovery in fiscal revenue, but also a positive indicator. Fiscal policy continues to be effective.” said He Daixin, head of the Finance Research Office of the Institute of Financial Strategy of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences.

  Taxation is a barometer of the economy and best reflects the quality of income.

Since the beginning of this year, with the steady growth of fixed asset investment in various places, the service industry has recovered in an all-round way, consumer demand has been continuously released, and taxation has increased significantly.

  In the first half of the year, Tianjin’s tax revenue increased by 22% year-on-year, accounting for 73% of 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% higher than that of the whole country, and 90% of the industries achieved profitability.

  In the first half of the year, Jilin's value-added tax increased by 29.5% year-on-year, corporate income tax increased by 24.8% year-on-year, and deed tax increased by 25% year-on-year. The total contribution rate to tax revenue growth reached 75.8%.

"Since the beginning of the year, Jilin has continued to accelerate project construction, stabilize industrial operations, and stimulate consumption recovery. The main economic indicators have grown rapidly, and the foundation for the province's income growth has continued to be consolidated." The relevant person in charge of the Jilin Provincial Department of Finance said.

  Jiangsu's tax revenue from January to June was 463.1 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 19.8%, which strongly boosted fiscal revenue.

"Especially in the context of continuous tax and fee reductions, value-added tax, corporate income tax and personal income tax, which are closely related to enterprise production and operation and residents' income, have maintained growth of more than 20%, reflecting the steady improvement of economic operation quality and efficiency." The relevant person in charge of the Jiangsu Provincial Department of Finance said.

  "In the first half of the year, the economy recovered steadily, and fiscal revenues in various regions followed up. At the same time, the main sources of income remained stable. The average growth rate of the three major taxes exceeded 20%. It has played an active role in operating and balancing tax burdens. Under the influence of multiple factors, local fiscal revenues have maintained a relatively high growth rate." He Daixin said.

  Guarantee key expenditures

  Comparing the income and expenditure data of various regions, it is found that since the beginning of this year, the progress of fiscal expenditure in many places has accelerated, and the growth rate of fiscal expenditure in some localities has been significantly lower than the growth rate of income.

  In the first half of the year, Beijing’s general public budget expenditure was 371.40 billion yuan, an increase of 0.6% year-on-year, and 53.5% of the annual budget was completed, 3.5 percentage points over time; Hubei’s general public budget expenditure was 407.2 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 14.9%, which was 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 expenditures has slowed down, mainly due to the high intensity of anti-epidemic expenditures in the first half of 2020. The slowdown in the same period this year is normal." He Daixin said that at the same time, pressure has been suppressed since the second half of last year. Efforts to reduce non-urgently needed non-essential expenditures have been fruitful. While ensuring expenditures in key areas, especially people’s livelihoods, some of the expenditure scales have been reduced, and a basic balance of fiscal operations has been achieved.

  Judging from the details of expenditures announced by local governments, all localities have conscientiously implemented the government's "too tight life" requirements, and fiscal expenditures have adhered to strict management and control and key points, which has effectively ensured the implementation of key livelihood areas and major decisions.

  Heilongjiang strictly controls general expenditures such as official receptions, going abroad on business, buses, and meetings.

At the same time, it has increased 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 expenditures were 211.55 billion yuan, accounting for 86.8% of general public budget expenditures.

  Hubei's fiscal expenditure has maintained a relatively high intensity, and the proportion of people's livelihood expenditure in the general public budget expenditure has remained above 75%, which fully guarantees the basic people's livelihood expenditure needs such as pension, employment, education, and medical care.

  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%, and the total expenditure was 19,272 billion yuan.

Among them, housing security, education, social security and employment expenditures increased by 38.7%, 16.5% and 9.3% respectively year-on-year.

  The effective protection of expenditures in key areas in various regions cannot be separated from the strong support of direct funds.

This year, the total amount of transfer payments from the central government to local governments is 2.8 trillion yuan. In the first half of this year, the central government has allocated 2.59 trillion yuan, of which 2.506 trillion yuan has been allocated to fund users by local governments, accounting for 96.8% of the central government's allocated funds.

  "This efficiency is relatively high, indicating that the local government has become a'god of wealth' in accordance with the requirements, instead of being a'hands-off shopkeeper', and promptly appropriated the central fiscal funds." said Bai Jingming, a researcher at the Chinese Academy of Fiscal Sciences, in the second half of the year. The key is to open up the "last mile" of direct funds, that is, local governments at the grass-roots level must use the money as required to ensure the employment of residents, the mainstay of the market, the basic people's livelihood, and the basic level of wages and operations. The flowers are good and in place.

  Difficulties and challenges remain

  "With the gradual weakening of the base effect, the growth rate of local fiscal revenues will decline in the second half of the year, and the pressure on fiscal revenues and expenditures in some regions is expected to increase." Due to factors such as rising prices of bulk commodities, some local sources of income have decreased. On the other hand, expenditures on disaster prevention and epidemic prevention, people's livelihood and welfare expenditures, and major project expenditures must be fully guaranteed, and local fiscal revenues and expenditures still face many difficulties and challenges.

  Bai Jingming believes that policy measures such as direct funding and tax and fee reduction will play an important role in stimulating economic growth and alleviating the pressure on fiscal revenue and expenditure. Upgrade. At the same time, increase corporate income, drive employment, increase worker wages, and effectively stimulate consumption. It can also standardize government behavior, optimize the business environment, stabilize market expectations, and effectively stimulate corporate investment vitality and investment enthusiasm."

  In fact, when the economic work was deployed at the beginning of the year, the country had already made a series of countermeasures to the expected difficult challenges.

This year's "Government Work Report" requires that macro policies such as tax cuts continue to relieve market players and maintain the necessary support.

This year, the Ministry of Finance will continue to implement the systemic tax reduction policy, timely extend the implementation period of small-scale taxpayers' value-added tax reduction and other policies, and further increase the tax reduction and exemption for small and micro enterprises and individual industrial and commercial households to help market players recover their vitality and enhance their vitality.

  All localities have also come up with practical measures to actively prevent problems before they happen.

The relevant person in charge of the Jiangxi Provincial Department of Finance said that in the second half of the year, the issuance and use of government bonds will be accelerated, and the special bonds will be used as project capital to guide the construction of the "two new and one heavy" construction; structural tax cuts and fee reductions will be implemented without compromise. Policies to effectively reduce the burden on market entities and stimulate market vitality.

  Chongqing will continue to adjust and optimize the revenue and expenditure space, do a good job in ensuring wages, ensuring operations, and ensuring basic people's livelihood, and innovating investment and financing systems and mechanisms.

  Guangxi has continued to increase its efforts to promote expenditures, do everything possible to coordinate funds to maintain a moderate expenditure intensity, and on the basis of maintaining a relatively rapid growth in fiscal expenditures, adhere to the protection of key points and improve people's livelihood.

  "In the face of uncertainty, the proactive fiscal policies of various regions should improve quality and efficiency, and be more sustainable, further implement the policy of fine-grained tax and fee reduction, implement the normalized direct funding mechanism, and ensure that funds can effectively alleviate local financial pressure. At the same time. , To do a good job in government debt management and monitoring, timely warning of debt risk points, to ensure that local finances maintain a stable operation throughout the year." He Daixin said.