Looking at the "books" for the first quarter that are currently being announced in many places, we can see that both ends of the revenue and expenditure in various places are making efforts at the same time, and the active fiscal policy is more precise and sustainable.
On the income side, while reducing taxes and rebates, we will increase "open source" efforts, enhance the overall planning of financial resources, and maintain the overall stability of income; on the expenditure side, fiscal efforts should be prioritized, the progress of expenditures will be accelerated, and key areas such as people's livelihood will be effectively guaranteed, and enterprises will benefit. The public effect is fully manifested.
At present, the domestic and foreign environment is more complex, severe and uncertain, and local finance is facing the pressure of "tight balance".
Experts believe that all localities need to continue to pay attention to resolving the contradiction between revenue and expenditure, implement a proactive fiscal policy, earnestly increase income and reduce expenditure, improve policy efficiency and capital efficiency, and help stabilize the economic fundamentals.
Income is generally stable
"Under the influence of multiple factors such as the impact of the new crown pneumonia epidemic and the policy of reducing taxes and fees, the fiscal revenue and expenditure of various regions in the first quarter were generally stable, but there were differences in various indicators." Director Li Xuhong said.
Most local fiscal revenue maintained steady growth.
In the first quarter, Beijing's general public budget revenue was 168.97 billion yuan, an increase of 6.6%; Fujian's general public budget revenue was 190.893 billion yuan, an increase of 11.2%; Ningxia's general public budget revenue was 13.33 billion yuan, an increase of 18.5%; Hubei's general public budget revenue was 112.987 billion yuan Yuan, an increase of 7.6%.
Wang Zecai, a researcher at the Chinese Academy of Fiscal Sciences, said that the national economy continued to recover in the first quarter, and the start was generally stable, laying the foundation for the growth of fiscal revenue in various regions.
At the same time, affected by the rising prices of bulk products such as energy, building materials, and grain, and driven by the active coordination of financial resources and the revitalization of the assets of administrative institutions, local-level tax revenue and state-owned assets operating income continued to grow steadily.
The income growth rate of resource-based provinces is relatively high.
In the first quarter, the general public budget revenue of Gansu, Shaanxi and Shanxi was 24.94 billion yuan, 96.55 billion yuan and 101.98 billion yuan respectively, an increase of 12.9%, 34.2% and 51.4% respectively.
"This is mainly due to the rising prices of resource products such as coal. At the same time, the steady economic recovery has driven industrial added value, corporate profits have risen, and abundant tax sources have also boosted local fiscal revenue." Li Xuhong said.
The proportion of tax revenue in many places exceeds 80% of fiscal revenue, reflecting the improvement in the quality of local fiscal and tax revenue.
For example, in the first quarter, Beijing's local-level tax revenue was 141.47 billion yuan, accounting for 83.7% of the tax revenue.
"This is mainly due to the improvement of the business conditions of enterprises, and the deferred tax for some enterprises in accordance with the unified policy in the fourth quarter of last year." The relevant person in charge of the Beijing Municipal Bureau of Finance said.
It is worth noting that some local value-added tax has declined.
For example, Tianjin's first-quarter value-added tax revenue fell by 7.6% year-on-year, and Gansu's year-on-year decline was 1.8%.
"The decline in value-added tax revenue in some localities is mainly due to the effective effect of a series of tax and fee reduction policies, which is also related to the impact of the new crown pneumonia epidemic." Li Xuhong analyzed.
Some provinces also announced government fund revenue.
For example, the budget revenue of government funds in Gansu, Guizhou and Tianjin was 6.57 billion yuan, 23.786 billion yuan and 15.83 billion yuan respectively, down 35.8%, 33.5% and 27.9% respectively over the same period of the previous year.
"The income from the transfer of state-owned land accounts for about 90% of the income of government funds. Under the influence of policies such as strictly adhering to the 'red line' of 1.8 billion mu of arable land and 'housing, housing, not speculating' and other policies, the financial dependence on land in some localities has weakened, and land transfer income has declined." Wang Zecai said.
Spending is accelerating
This year's proactive fiscal policy requires "maintaining the intensity of fiscal expenditures and accelerating the progress of expenditures". All localities are actively implementing them and urging fiscal policies to come forward.
Focusing on "fast", local fiscal expenditures are powerful and effective.
In the first quarter, Beijing's general public budget expenditure was 237.40 billion yuan, an increase of 7.3%, and 33.2% of the budget was completed, exceeding the schedule by 8.2 percentage points; Zhejiang's general public budget expenditure was 314.558 billion yuan, an increase of 11.9%, and 28.5% of the budget was completed, faster than The progress was 3.5 percentage points on schedule; Anhui's general public budget expenditure was 223.7 billion yuan, an increase of 14.5%, and 29.2% of the budget was completed, and the progress was 4.2 percentage points ahead of schedule.
Starting at "early", the progress of government fund expenditure has accelerated significantly.
In the first quarter, the budget expenditure of Zhejiang government funds was 256.103 billion yuan, an increase of 12.4%; the budget expenditure of Guizhou government funds was 47.594 billion yuan, an increase of 39.9%; the budget expenditure of Tianjin government funds was 24.4 billion yuan, an increase of 29.1%.
"This is mainly due to the double impact of the accelerated issuance of special bonds and the low base last year." said Luo Zhiheng, chief economist of Yuekai Securities and dean of the research institute.
Since the beginning of the year, the issuance and use of special bonds has accelerated. As of the end of March 2022, 1.25 trillion yuan had been issued, accounting for 86% of the amount issued in advance, an increase of 1.23 trillion yuan over last year, of which Inner Mongolia, Liaoning, Heilongjiang, Shanghai and other provinces The city has all completed the issuance of quotas issued in advance.
Special bonds were issued early and used quickly, which played a significant role in stabilizing investment and growth.
According to the relevant person in charge of the Shaanxi Provincial Department of Finance, Shaanxi issued special bonds in advance of 32.6 billion yuan in 2022, supporting the construction of 231 projects and injecting more vitality into the market.
In the next step, cities and counties will be urged to speed up the preliminary procedures such as land, environmental impact assessment, and bidding for special bond projects, increase the normalization of project reserves, speed up the progress of bond issuance and bond fund allocation and use, and give full play to the benefits of bond funds as soon as possible.
Focusing on "guarantee", the expenditure in key areas such as people's livelihood in various places is effectively guaranteed, and the dividends that benefit enterprises and the people are continuously released.
In the first quarter, Jiangxi’s people’s livelihood expenditure was 161.71 billion yuan, accounting for 81.2% of the general public budget expenditure, an increase of 1.7 percentage points year-on-year; Liaoning’s people’s livelihood expenditure accounted for 77% of the general public budget expenditure, and key expenditures such as agriculture, forestry, water, health, and housing security Faster growth.
"The local key expenditures have grown, and the allocation of financial resources has continued to be optimized." Wang Zecai said that from a national perspective, in the first quarter, expenditures on science and technology, education, agriculture, forestry, water, social security and employment, and health and health increased by 22.4%, 8.5%, and 8.4% respectively. , 6.8%, and 6.2%, and the role of active fiscal policy in underpinning guarantee and counter-cyclical adjustment has been effectively brought into play.
"Tight balance" will continue
Affected by the impact of the new crown pneumonia epidemic, geopolitical conflicts and other factors, my country's economic recovery and development is facing many instability, the uncertainty of local fiscal revenue and expenditure has increased, and the "tight balance" trend will continue.
Between the reduction of income and the increase of expenditure, how should local governments respond?
Li Xuhong believes that to deal with the contradiction between fiscal revenue and expenditure, all localities should start from three aspects: first, to improve the efficiency of the use of fiscal funds, to eliminate unnecessary expenditures, to ensure expenditures in key areas, and to optimize the structure of fiscal expenditures; the second is to improve the quality of fiscal revenue and give full play to tax reduction The fee reduction policy plays a counter-cyclical adjustment role, effectively reducing the burden on market players, supporting and leading market players to overcome difficulties together, and stabilizing the overall economic development market; the third is to implement proactive fiscal policies, give full play to the role of special bonds, and strengthen performance evaluation of special bonds and supervision and management, activate special bonds to leverage investment and stimulate economic development.
"At the current point in time, finance must not only hedge against economic and social risks, but also ensure that its own risks are controllable; it must not only play the role of total adjustment of fiscal counter-cyclical adjustment, but also play the role of structural reform." Luo Zhiheng believes that, First of all, the central government needs to continue to increase its transfer payments to local governments, promote the sinking of financial resources to the grassroots level in cities and counties, and prevent local governments from discounting their spending due to insufficient financial resources.
Second, actively implement the tax reduction and fee reduction and tax rebate policies, improve cash flow, and enhance the ability of market players to resist risks.
In addition, unemployment allowances and temporary living allowances can be issued to vulnerable groups to ensure social stability and social stability.
In order to alleviate the contradiction between fiscal revenue and expenditure and promote the smooth operation of county and district finance, the central government recently issued the second batch of budget targets for supporting grassroots implementation of tax cuts and fee reductions and key livelihood transfer payment funds, with a total of 400 billion yuan of special funds to support local implementation. Other tax and fee reduction policies effectively make up for the policy-based revenue reduction.
"Under the keynote of 'steady words in the first place', the next step is to deal with unstable fiscal policies, especially the tax reduction and tax reduction policies and support measures for market entities such as manufacturing and small and micro enterprises. It will be accelerated, not delayed." Wang Zecai said that in the face of difficulties and challenges, local governments at all levels must closely study and judge the international and domestic situation, do a good job in epidemic prevention and control, and ensure stable supply and production, so as to inject certainty into the recovery of the economy and contribute to fiscal revenue. Growth creates possibilities.
At the same time, it is necessary to implement a proactive fiscal policy, pay more attention to precision and sustainability, pay close attention to the financial operation of the grassroots, especially counties and districts, firmly hold the bottom line of "three guarantees", and ensure the smooth completion of major national strategic tasks.