More than 10 provinces have completed the issuance of quotas in advance——
Special bonds drive effective investment
Our reporter Wu Yadong
A few days ago, the executive meeting of the State Council deployed government bonds to expand effective investment in order to boost weak links and increase stamina and steady economic growth.
Statistics show that as of the end of March, 1.25 trillion yuan of new special bond quotas had been issued this year, accounting for 86% of the quota issued in advance, an increase of 1.23 trillion yuan over last year's issuance.
Among them, more than 10 provinces including Inner Mongolia, Liaoning, Heilongjiang and Zhejiang have all completed the issuance of quotas in advance.
Moderately accelerate the progress of bond issuance
Local government special bonds are an important starting point for the implementation of proactive fiscal policies, and play an important role in promoting the expansion of effective investment and stabilizing the macro economy.
"Generally speaking, the issuance and use of special bonds this year started early, moved quickly, and progressed significantly faster than in previous years," said Xu Hongcai, Vice Minister of Finance.
It is reported that all special bond quotas for project construction have been issued.
In order to facilitate local arrangements, with the approval of the State Council, in December last year, the Ministry of Finance issued a new quota of 1.46 trillion yuan for local special bonds in 2022 in advance.
At present, all localities are stepping up the implementation of budget adjustment procedures, and the newly issued quotas are broken down to cities and counties as soon as possible.
"my country's economic development is facing the triple pressure of demand contraction, supply shock, and weakening expectations. To stabilize the growth rate of economic development within a reasonable range, fiscal policies, including special bonds, need to be put forward." Bai Yanfeng, dean of the School of Finance and Taxation at Central University of Finance and Economics, said.
In September last year, the Ministry of Finance deployed local governments to submit the funding requirements for this year's special bond projects. In January this year, the Ministry of Finance, together with the National Development and Reform Commission, arranged for local governments to make up a batch of special debt reserve projects, with a total of 71,000 projects in two batches.
"The current new crown pneumonia epidemic presents the characteristics of many points, wide areas and frequent occurrences. In the issuance and use of special bonds, we adhere to the principle of giving priority to policy efforts, and organizing and deploying the issuance and use of special bonds will help expand investment, stabilize growth, and make up for Shortcomings are of great significance," said Long Xiaoyan, an associate researcher at the Financial Research Center of the Chinese Academy of Fiscal Sciences.
At present, the use of special bonds has been significantly accelerated.
All localities have timely incorporated the amount issued in advance into the budget at the beginning of the year or performed the budget adjustment procedure, and allocated and used the bonds as soon as possible after the issuance. At present, 852.8 billion yuan has been allocated to the project unit, accounting for 68% of the issued amount.
"Among them, more than 110 billion yuan of special bond funds have been arranged in various regions as capital for major projects, effectively giving play to the leveraging effect of the government's investment of 'four liang to allocate a thousand pounds'." Xu Hongcai said.
"From the current situation, it is expected that the issuance of special bonds issued in advance last year can be completed by the end of May. At the same time, the Ministry of Finance will continue to increase guidance to local governments to ensure that the issuance of special bonds issued this year will be completed by the end of September." Finance Wang Xiaolong, director of the Ministry of Treasury Department, said.
Better use of special debt
The executive meeting of the State Council proposed that the remaining special debt quota should be released as soon as possible, and it should be tilted towards regions with strong solvency, many projects and sufficient reserves.
Xu Hongcai said that in the process of the central government's fiscal assignment, the financial resources and debt risk levels of various regions should be fully considered, and the provinces with strong fiscal strength and low debt risks should be tilted, and the scale of new quotas in high-risk areas should be controlled to avoid the accumulation of risks in high-risk areas.
At the same time, adhere to the principle of "funds follow the project", give preference to areas with mature and many key projects, and focus on supporting major projects such as infrastructure and public services with certain benefits, as well as major national strategic projects.
At present, from the perspective of the investment direction of special debt funds, the characteristics of focusing on key areas are obvious.
All localities take major projects as traction, focus on key investment areas, and drive the expansion of effective investment.
The data shows that among the special bonds issued, 415.7 billion yuan for municipal and industrial park infrastructure, 231.6 billion yuan for transportation infrastructure, 225.1 billion yuan for social undertakings, 201.6 billion yuan for affordable housing projects, 100.4 billion yuan for agriculture, forestry and water conservancy, and ecological and environmental protection. 46.8 billion yuan, and 25.1 billion yuan for logistics infrastructure such as energy and urban and rural cold chain.
Song Qichao, head of the Ministry of Finance's Budget Department and director of the Government Debt Research and Evaluation Center, said that this year's special bonds will continue to focus on nine major areas including transportation infrastructure, energy, agriculture, forestry and water conservancy, ecological and environmental protection, and social undertakings.
At the same time, continue to implement the negative list management of special bond investment fields, and strictly prohibit the use of bond funds for buildings, image projects, performance projects, and non-public capital expenditure projects.
This year, the Ministry of Finance has rationally expanded the use of special bonds from three aspects: increasing investment in areas such as benefiting people's livelihood and resolving people's worries, supporting the construction of projects that increase stamina and improve high-level projects, and promote the construction of projects that make up for shortcomings and strong and weak projects.
Luo Zhiheng, chief economist of Yuekai Securities and dean of the research institute, said that moderately expanding the investment scope of special bonds is conducive to exploring projects that meet the requirements and promoting the wider driving role of special bond funds.
For example, in terms of promoting the construction of weak and weak projects, all localities are required to focus on comprehensively promoting rural revitalization, speeding up agricultural and rural modernization, making good project reserves in the agricultural and rural areas, focusing on grain warehousing and logistics facilities as the focus of special bond support, and supporting important agricultural products. In particular, food supply, to ensure national food security.
“本次扩大专项债的资金使用范围，主要是精准聚焦重点领域和短板领域，持续优化地方政府专项债券使用范围，用好地方政府债券扩大有效投资，为拉动消费扩大内需、促就业稳增长提供有力支撑，确保‘好钢用在刀刃上’。”白彦锋表示。
确保资金合规高效使用
去年以来，财政部要求各地全面推广专项债券项目穿透式监测，并在局部地区试点。
“目前，我们正在加紧工作，预计今年7月底能够实现穿透式监测全覆盖，夯实专项债券全生命周期管理基础。”许宏才说。
罗志恒表示，一些地方政府债券存在重发行、轻管理的问题，对债券资金发行后的使用缺乏监督。全面推广穿透式监测，通过信息化手段把后端监测的短板补起来，可促进专项债券资金安全、规范、高效使用。
许宏才说，为避免资金闲置和挪用，将严格落实专项债券负面清单管理和实施支出进度通报预警制度，现已制定下发了全国和高风险地区两类负面清单，明确专项债券资金不得用于负面清单所列的投向领域项目。
近年来，一些专项债项目在实施过程中，受多重因素影响难以继续执行，如果继续下去，容易造成资金浪费和闲置。财政部为此专门印发了《地方政府专项债券用途调整操作指引》，支持地方政府按照指引操作，允许地方根据实际需要调整债券资金用途。
在触发条件方面，《指引》提出，项目实施过程中发生重大变化，确无专项债券资金需求或者需求少于预期，项目竣工后专项债券资金发生结余，以及专项债券违规使用按要求需要整改等情形，允许调整专项债券用途。在调整原则上，调整安排的项目必须具备发行使用条件，优先支持党中央、国务院明确的重点领域重大项目，优先选择与原项目同类型同领域的项目。
“《指引》赋予了地方调整专项债券项目资金用途的自主权。”白彦锋表示，从近年实践情况看，印发《指引》规定了触发条件，并且还有相应的违规惩戒措施，能有效解决实践中存在的问题，切实发挥专项债券资金的使用效益。