China News Service, March 6 (Xinhua) Finance Minister Lan Fo'an said on the 6th that party and government agencies must live a tight life. This is a clear requirement of the Party Central Committee. Governments at all levels must take the lead in implementation and run all undertakings diligently and frugally.
As the saying goes, if you budget carefully, you can keep the oil and salt. If the party and government agencies spend less, they can spend more on people's livelihood projects.
Of course, the party and government agencies must live a tight life, not by tightening their wallets and not spending money, but by spending what they should. The province should be "generous with big money and stingy with small money" and concentrate financial resources to do big things.
The second session of the 14th National People's Congress held a press conference at 3 pm on March 6 in the Media Center Press Conference Hall.
Photo by China News Service reporter Yang Huafeng
In recent years, the financial department has strictly implemented the requirements of tightening living standards, which can be summarized in the following three aspects:
The first is to strive to reduce administrative operation costs and increase people's livelihood protection.
The central government’s “three public” expenditure budget for 2023 has dropped by 20% compared with 2019 before the epidemic.
During the same period, fiscal expenditures on people's livelihood maintained rapid growth.
In 2023, fiscal expenditures at all levels on education and other key people's livelihood areas will increase by 25.5% compared with 2019.
The second is to rationally arrange central department expenditures and increase transfer payments to local governments.
On the basis of effectively ensuring the performance of departments' duties, central departments have taken the lead in tightening their belts. From 2020 to 2022, central department expenditures have continued to experience negative growth, with only a slight increase of 0.8% in 2023. The money saved is used to support local governments to protect people's livelihood, improve development.
From 2019 to 2023, transfer payments from the central government to local governments increased from 7.44 trillion yuan to 10.29 trillion yuan, exceeding 10 trillion yuan for the first time, an increase of 38%.
The third is to strictly control general expenditures to ensure the implementation of major national strategic tasks.
For example, from 2018 to 2023, national fiscal science and technology expenditure increased from 832.7 billion yuan to 1.0823 billion yuan, an increase of 30%.
In 2024, central government-level science and technology expenditures will continue to increase, with an increase of 10%, to better support science and technology self-reliance and self-reliance.
The Second Session of the 14th National People's Congress held a press conference on March 6, inviting Director of the National Development and Reform Commission Zheng Shajie, Minister of Finance Lan Fo'an, Minister of Commerce Wang Wentao, Governor of the People's Bank of China Pan Gongsheng, China Securities Regulatory Commission Wu Qing, chairman of the committee, answered questions from domestic and foreign reporters on issues related to development and reform, fiscal budget, business, financial securities, etc.