On May 22, after the opening meeting of the Third Session of the 13th National People's Congress, the first "minister channel" interview event was held, and some heads of relevant ministries and commissions who attended the meeting were interviewed via online video.
Reporter from Guangdong Radio and TV Station: Affected by the epidemic, some local governments have not had a good life this year. Some local governments have financial difficulties, and some grassroots finances have had difficulties in protecting people's livelihood and maintaining their operations. May I ask what kind of policies or measures the Ministry of Finance will introduce to help the local government ensure basic livelihood, wages and operations? Thank you.
Liu Kun, Minister of Finance: Thank you for your question. As I said just now, we expect fiscal revenue to decline this year, and both the central and local governments will be affected. We have made predictions on the local financial situation, and it is estimated that the scale of income reduction and expenditure increase will be between 800 and 900 billion yuan. Some localities will face greater pressure to ensure basic livelihood, wages and operations. In the past few months, the central government has accelerated the allocation of funds for local government transfer payments, while increasing the proportion of local financial funds retained, easing local financial difficulties. On the whole, the operation of local finance is normal and stable.
Liu Kun: Strengthening the protection of local financial resources is the focus of this year's budget arrangement. In his government work report, Premier Li Keqiang stated that all the increased financial funds for increasing the deficit rate this year will be allocated to local governments, and the central government ’s income from issuing special anti-epidemic bonds will also be used for local infrastructure construction and anti-epidemic expenditures. Local financial resources and strong support for local financial operations.
Liu Kun: In this year's general budget arrangement, the central government's transfer payments to local governments have increased by 12.8%, which is the highest in recent years. The central government has also set up special transfer payments to support local grassroots operations, protect basic livelihoods, and implement the "six guarantees" task. The central government has allocated 10% for the growth of balanced transfer payments and supplementary funds for county-level basic financial resources. The central government has also specially arranged support for Hubei. The central government will do its utmost to ensure the normal operation of local finance.
Liu Kun: Of course, the local finance should also vigorously reduce general expenditures, work hard, save money, strengthen management, and use limited funds for ideas. Thank you.
(Organized according to the webcast text)