China News Service, February 1st: The State Council Information Office held a press conference on the fiscal revenue and expenditure for 2023 on the 1st. Wang Dongwei, Vice Minister of Finance, said at the meeting that fiscal revenue will show restorative growth in 2023, and the national general public budget revenue will exceed 21 trillion yuan, an increase of 6.4%.
Wang Dongwei introduced that in accordance with the decisions and arrangements of the Party Central Committee and the State Council, the financial department will increase financial macro-adjustment, solidly implement proactive fiscal policies, and promote economic recovery and high-quality development. The implementation of the national fiscal budget in 2023 shows five characteristics.
First, fiscal revenue maintained a restorative growth trend. Benefiting from the economic rebound and the implementation of large-scale value-added tax refunds in 2022 to lower the base and other factors, fiscal revenue will show restorative growth in 2023. The national general public budget revenue exceeded 21 trillion yuan, an increase of 6.4%. From a local perspective, the income of the eastern, central, western and northeastern regions increased by 6.7%, 6.9%, 10.7% and 12% respectively, and all 31 provinces in the country achieved positive growth in fiscal revenue.
Second, fiscal expenditure continues to increase. At the beginning of 2023, the fiscal deficit rate will be set at 3%. In order to support post-disaster recovery and reconstruction and enhance disaster prevention, reduction and relief capabilities, an additional 1 trillion yuan in government bonds were issued in the fourth quarter, all of which were arranged to local governments through transfer payments. The national general public budget expenditure will reach 27.46 trillion yuan in 2023, an increase of 5.4%. Key areas have strong guarantees. Social security and employment expenditures increased by 8.9%, education expenditures increased by 4.5%, science and technology expenditures increased by 7.9%, agriculture, forestry and water expenditures increased by 6.5%, and urban and rural community expenditures increased by 5.7%.
Third, the tax reduction and fee reduction policy continues to be optimized and improved. At the beginning of 2023, the continuation and optimization of some tax policies were clarified as early as possible. In the second half of the year, according to changes in the economic situation, a batch of expired tax policies will be continued, optimized, and improved to further reduce the tax burden on business entities and accurately support the manufacturing industry. and the high-quality development of the real economy. The scale of new tax cuts and fee reductions and tax rebates and fee deferrals nationwide exceeded 2.2 trillion yuan throughout the year.
Fourth, the effectiveness of the special debt policy will be further brought into play. The scale of local government special bonds arranged in 2023 is 3.8 trillion yuan, with priority given to supporting relatively mature projects and projects under construction, focusing on key points without "sprinkling pepper", and expanding the investment areas of special bonds. Special bond investment in 2023 The fields have been expanded to 11. The scope of special bonds used as project capital has also been expanded to 15 aspects. At the same time, the issuance and use of special bonds have been strengthened, which has effectively promoted the construction of a number of major projects in transportation, water conservancy, energy, etc. that will benefit the present and long-term.
Fifth, the bottom line for risk prevention is further established. Mainly from two aspects: On the one hand, regarding local government debt, we have promoted the formulation of a package of debt reduction plans, and worked hard to resolve the risks of local government implicit debt, so as to resolve the existing debt and curb the increase. On the other hand, transfer payments to local governments will be increased, with the scale of transfer payments reaching 10.29 trillion yuan in 2023. The county-level basic financial guarantee mechanism's reward and subsidy fund policy has been improved, and is tilted towards areas with greater expenditure pressure on "three guarantees" and relatively weak financial resources. At the same time, we will guide the provincial level to sink financial resources and jointly build a solid bottom line for the "three guarantees" at the grassroots level.
Wang Dongwei pointed out that in 2024, the basic trend of my country's economic recovery and long-term improvement has not changed. From the perspective of fiscal revenue, as the effects of macro-control policies continue to be released and high-quality development is solidly advanced, it will lay a solid foundation for fiscal revenue growth, and fiscal revenue will continue to grow restoratively. In terms of fiscal expenditure, the necessary intensity will continue to be maintained, and transfer payments to local governments will also maintain a certain scale. The specific fiscal revenue and expenditure budget arrangements for 2024 are being refined and improved in accordance with the decisions and arrangements of the Party Central Committee and the State Council, and will be submitted to the National People's Congress for review and approval according to procedures.
In the next step, the Ministry of Finance will adhere to the principle of seeking progress while maintaining stability, promoting stability through promotion, establishing first and breaking things later, coordinating the expansion of domestic demand and supply-side structural reform, coordinating new urbanization and promoting comprehensive rural revitalization, and coordinating high-quality development and high-level security. , increase fiscal macro-control efforts, implement proactive fiscal policies, and consolidate and enhance the positive economic recovery.