[Economic Highlights in the First Half of the Year] Transfer Payment Secures the Bottom Line of People's Livelihood

　　Affected by factors such as repeated epidemics and international geopolitical conflicts, the downward pressure on my country's economy has increased since the beginning of this year.

At the same time, my country has implemented large-scale value-added tax credits and tax refunds, and the financial revenue situation is relatively severe.

　　The semi-annual report on fiscal revenue and expenditure shows that in the face of a series of unexpected shocks, the central government has significantly increased transfer payments, reaching a new high in scale, effectively safeguarding people's livelihood expenditures, and securing the bottom line of people's livelihood.

　　"Doing a good job in helping people in need and strengthening the financial guarantee for basic people's livelihood is a concrete manifestation of adhering to the idea of ​​people-centered development, and an important part of implementing the task of 'six guarantees'." The first-level inspector of the Budget Department of the Ministry of Finance and government debt Song Qichao, director of the Research and Evaluation Center, said that the central government will increase financial support for local governments, urge provincial financial departments to implement their main responsibilities, strengthen financial operation monitoring, and build a solid bottom line for the "three guarantees" (basic livelihood, wages, and operation). .

　　In 2022, the transfer payments to local governments arranged by the central finance have two characteristics: one is large scale, and the other is high growth rate.

In terms of scale, the transfer payment from the central government to local governments in 2022 will be nearly 9.8 trillion yuan, the largest scale over the years; from the perspective of growth, the transfer payment from the central government to local governments in 2022 will increase by about 1.5 trillion yuan over the previous year, an increase of 18%. The increase is the highest in recent years.

　　"Affected by factors such as the epidemic, the imbalance of fiscal revenue and expenditure in some regions is more prominent, and it is very important to protect the basic people's livelihood. Transfer payment is an important means for the central government to regulate the local financial situation. Expenditure pressure, promote people's livelihood guarantee work, promote the relief of enterprises, and boost market confidence." said Li Xuhong, director of the Institute of Fiscal and Taxation Policy and Application of Beijing National Accounting Institute.

　　In the "total plate" of transfer payments, the central government has arranged to support the grassroots to implement a budget of 1.2 trillion yuan for transfer payments such as tax cuts and fee reductions and key people's livelihood.

"This 1.2 trillion yuan will be included in this year's budget of 800 billion yuan and next year's budget of 400 billion yuan. By increasing the transfer payments from the central government to local governments, it is ensured that counties and districts maintain the basic conditions on the premise of implementing large-scale tax rebates and tax reduction policies. The basic financial resources needed to ensure people's livelihood, wages and operation." Song Qichao said.

　　The central government has strong support, and the local governments have also strengthened financial guarantees.

According to the deployment, the provincial financial departments will coordinate the central subsidy funds and their own financial resources, increase the transfer payment to the lower level, and focus on cities and counties with weak financial resources; the municipal financial departments will increase financial resources to ensure the livelihood of the counties and districts under their jurisdiction. Provide assistance for work; county-level finance regards basic people's livelihood as the focus of budgetary arrangements, and prioritizes relevant budgets to ensure the bottom line of basic people's livelihood.

　　The latest statistics show that in the first half of the year, the national general public budget expenditure increased by 5.9%, which was higher than the increase in fiscal revenue.

Expenditure in key areas such as people's livelihood has been effectively guaranteed.

Among them, expenditures on health, education, social security and employment increased by 7.7%, 4.2% and 3.6% respectively.

　　"Under the pressure of fiscal revenue, the central government has increased transfer payments to ensure people's livelihood and anti-epidemic expenditures, and has made every effort to stabilize economic and social operations, and basic people's livelihood has been effectively guaranteed under various shocks." China Social Sciences He Daixin, director of the Financial Research Office of the Institute of Financial and Economic Strategy, said that my country's transfer payment system is gradually improving, especially this year, the speed of issuance is fast, the support is strong, and at the same time, it pays attention to the sense of acquisition of the guarantee object.

　　How can we better improve the use efficiency of transfer payment funds?

The direct mechanism of financial funds has the characteristics of "one pole to the end" and is an important innovation in macro-control in recent years.

This year's "Government Work Report" requires that the central government should bring more funds into the direct scope, and the provincial finance should also increase its support for cities and counties.

　　"Since this year, the Ministry of Finance, together with relevant departments, has studied and included more funds into the direct scope in accordance with the decisions and deployments of the Party Central Committee and the State Council, with a total amount of about 4 trillion yuan. At the same time, it has improved the management mechanism, promoted the sinking of financial resources, and enabled the grassroots to benefit enterprises. The policy of benefiting the people is more capable and more motivated." Xue Weigan, deputy director of the Treasury Payment Center of the Ministry of Finance, said that from the first half of the year, the direct mechanism of financial funds was operating well, and the policy effect was obvious, reflecting the institutional advantages of the direct mechanism.

　　According to the statistics of the direct fund monitoring system, as of the end of June, of the about 4 trillion yuan of direct funds, the central government has allocated 3.992 trillion yuan, with a proportion of 97.9%, and all qualified funds have been issued.

　　The situation in various places shows that the policy of direct funds to benefit enterprises and people has obvious effects.

For example, in terms of insuring market entities, in addition to supporting enterprises through tax rebates, tax reductions, and fee reductions to offset their incomes, local governments also help enterprises through fiscal expenditures. The related direct expenditures on enterprises benefited about 350 billion yuan, benefiting 680,000 market entities, totaling 256 Thousands of times.

　　He Daixin believes that under the circumstance that the financial expenditures at the city and county levels are relatively high, direct funds play an important role in guaranteeing, in particular, the financial difficulties of the grassroots are better solved, and the management is more efficient and smooth.

(Economic Daily reporter Zeng Jinhua)