III. Properly Implementing the New Budget Law and Carrying Out the Work on Fiscal Reform and Development
1. Strengthening the legal framework for managing public finances
Study and training sessions and activities to inform about the newly revised Budget Law will be carried out to ensure that the guidelines, principles, and each specific provision of the law are thoroughly understood and the rule of law consciousness in budgetary work is strengthened. We will consciously follow the provisions of the Budget Law as our code of conduct as we exercise budgetary management, and perform our duties including managing the public finances in strict accordance with the law.
We will step up the intensity of work to revise the regulations on the enforcement of the Budget Law and improve systems such as the general transfer payments system according to the principles set in the Budget Law and its authorization.
We will coordinate the enforcement of the new Budget Law with fiscal and tax reforms, strengthening the links between concrete plans for fiscal and tax reforms and both the Budget Law and the building of institutions that support it.
In accordance with the plans for implementing the principle of law-based taxation, we will assist with legislative work on real estate tax, environmental protection tax, and tonnage tax, and actively promote the upgrading of existing interim tax regulations to laws. Our work regarding the revision of the Law on Tax Collection and Administration will be properly carried out.
2. Improving and strengthening macro-level regulation through fiscal policy
We will carry out timely and appropriate anticipatory adjustments and fine-tuning on the basis of ensuring the continuity and stability of our policies; place greater weight on making targeted measures based on the proper exercise of macro-regulation to keep the economy performing within an appropriate range; intensify efforts to carry out structural adjustments; prioritize the provision of support for areas of weakness; strike a balance between maintaining steady growth and restructuring; keep market expectations stable; prevent economic growth from slipping into a downward spiral; and create a good macro environment for ensuring steady economic development.
We will work actively to support efforts to discover and foster new areas of strong consumer activity that have huge market potential and great future prospects, improve and properly implement related fiscal and tax policies, promote information technology consumption, and stimulate the development of the elderly care, fitness, cultural, creative, and design industries.
We will advance reform of the investment and financing systems; make innovations in methods of investment and financing; move more quickly to launch projects that demonstrate the PPP model in urban infrastructure development, the public rental housing sector, and in business transformation of local government financing companies; and effectively unleash the potential of nongovernmental investment.
We will improve the policies and measures for boosting foreign trade, support increases in the export of technology, equipment, and services, cultivate new strengths to give us an advantage in foreign trade, and encourage increases in the import of advanced technology and equipment, key parts and components, and resources that China lacks.
We will work hard to improve the efficiency and quality of overseas investment, give impetus to the implementation of major projects for strengthening infrastructure connectivity with our neighboring countries, encourage international cooperation on advanced technology, and help competitive industries to step out onto the global stage.
3. Implementing the overall plan for deepening reform of the fiscal and tax systems
We will, in keeping with the requirements for deepening reform of the budget management system, review and regulate tax relief and other preferential policies, carry out medium-term fiscal planning, and reform and improve the transfer payments system. We will raise the percentage of earnings from state capital operations that are turned over to public finance, and research into bringing more SOEs under the management of state capital operations budgets. We will promote sustainability in the operations of social security funds on the basis of actuarial balance. We will formulate and introduce the guidelines for fully promoting openness in budgetary work, and go further to make budgetary work more transparent. We will research into increasing the number of government departments required to report their budgets to the NPC.
We will strive to extend the trials for replacing business tax with VAT to the construction, real estate, financial, and consumer service industries; and allow businesses to deduct the VAT on their new real estate purchases or on their payments for real estate rentals, and combine and lower VAT rates. We will continue to adjust the scope and rates of consumption tax, and take measures where appropriate to levy consumption tax on retail and wholesale instead of production. We will organize the implementation of reform of the resource tax and fees on coal, and develop plans for reforming resource taxes and fees on other types of resources aside from crude oil, natural gas, and coal. For the reform of personal income tax, we will develop a plan that integrates taxation based on both adjusted gross income as well as specific types of incomes.
When carrying out reforms in VAT and consumption tax, we will find a way to improve revenue distribution between the central and local governments. We will develop and introduce guidelines for appropriately dividing powers and spending responsibilities between the central and local governments.
We will move more swiftly to reform government procurement of services, establish a management system for listing services for government procurement, and gradually expand the scope and scale of government service-procurement.
4. Strengthening budgetary management
We will collect revenue in accordance with the law and act to do so to the fullest possible extent wherever revenue is due, while strictly prohibiting the collection of any tax or fee not prescribed by law as well as any act, such as accounting tricks, that boost revenue only on paper, thereby ensuring that revenue is as it should be and remains free from tampering.
We will tighten constraints on budgets and strengthen adherence to them, making sure that wherever there is spending there is first a budget; where something has not been budgeted for no expenditures are allowed, and where a planned adjustment to expenditure has not gone through the legally prescribed procedures it may not be made.
We will improve the system of standards for setting basic expenditures and project expenditures in the budgets, optimize the management of project databases, and strengthen the foundation of our budgetary work. We will improve the methods used for formulating budgets; significantly cut down the total size of expenditure budgets prepared by finance departments for other departments and projects; place greater emphasis on practicability and detail in the formulation of budgets; and make budget formulation more farsighted and accurate. We will improve the mechanisms for exercising dynamic monitoring of budget implementation, set up a sound system of accountability for budgetary spending, and make the implementation of budgets more efficient and balanced.
We will practice thrift in everything we do, and ensure that the system for ensuring strict austerity and fighting waste firmly takes root. We will reduce general expenditures, strictly control the spending of central government departments on official visits, official vehicles, and official hospitality and, in accordance with the regulations on the reform of the use of official vehicles, reduce expenditures on official vehicles.
We will continue to rectify the practices of doctoring the payroll and deliberate overstaffing. We will categorize the ways to make use of available government funds, and establish a sound, permanent mechanism for reviewing and regulating carryover and surplus funds.
We will proactively move ahead with cash management operations through the treasury by the central and local governments. We will put into action the idea of linking spending with performance and performance with accountability. We will raise the level of and expand the scope for assessing budget performance; strengthen performance assessment on expenditures that are of particular significance to the people's wellbeing; intensify accountability for budget performance; and improve the mechanism for linking the results of budget performance assessment with budget allocation.
By the end of 2015, we will have put into effect reform of centralized treasury payment in all townships and towns where conditions permit, and we will gradually expand the application of digital centralized treasury payment.
We will increase open access to information on government procurement, and further standardize the management of government procurement.
5. Strengthening management of local government debt
We will fully implement the guidelines for strengthening the management of local government debt, and strictly forestall and control fiscal risks.
First, we will establish a standardized mechanism for debt financing by local governments, which combines both general debt and special debt. The central government will allocate quotas for general and special debt to local governments principally on the basis of calculation of objective factors, such as their financial resources. We will improve the market-based pricing mechanism for local government bonds, have the market play a more significant role in regulating local government debt, protect the rights and interests of investors, and stabilize market confidence.
Second, we will establish sound mechanisms for debt management. We will impose ceilings for local government debt, which must not be exceeded. We will place local government debt under budgetary management for general public finance and government-managed funds, based on the type of debt. We will establish mechanisms for risk assessment and early warning about risks related to local government debt, and give early warning to regions where high risk is detected. We will provide guidance for and urge local governments to set up mechanisms for dealing with urgent matters concerning debt risks, and formulate contingency plans for the handling of such matters. We will introduce a system for releasing information on local government debt, and make regular public disclosures. We will move quickly to develop a system for comprehensive government financial reporting based on accrual accounting, formulate the rules for preparing the government's comprehensive financial reports and the guidelines for their operation, and lay down the basic principles of government accounting.
Third, we will make appropriate arrangements for handling outstanding debts and follow-up financing for on-going projects. Outstanding debts which have been reviewed and approved through statutory procedures will be placed under budgetary management, based on the type of debt. Local governments need to raise funds through multiple channels, and repay maturing debts on time. At the same time, a reasonable grace period will be set, during which part of the follow-up financing may be settled through bank loans within the limit set for on-going projects to avoid any break in the chain of funding and prevent fiscal and financial risks. Replacement is allowed as appropriate for those outstanding local government debts which have been brought under budgetary management after having been screened to lower the burden on local governments of paying more interest, improve the mix of debt maturities, and make more funds available for key projects.
6. Tightening up financial discipline
Building on past achievements in tightening up financial discipline and eliminating unauthorized departmental coffers, we will continue to take a strong stance in fields where violations of financial discipline and law are prone to occur or occur frequently, or where there are sensitive issues involved; regularly carry out inspections to check for strict compliance with financial discipline; and firmly prevent violations of financial discipline and law from re-emerging once dealt with.
We will increase transparency of information on policies. We will ensure that operation guidelines are issued for every special-purpose fund and that these guidelines are released to the public, so that the operation of government funds is transparent. We will intensify oversight over government funds, especially funds that are of particular significance to people's wellbeing, and tighten oversight through auditing.
We will move more quickly to set up systems and mechanisms for internal control of finance departments. We will ensure that, in important fields and key positions within which power over the allocation or use of government funds, or powers related to government procurement are concentrated, the way power is exercised is determined on the basis of the matter in question, the way power is arranged is determined on the basis of the position in question, and the way power is delegated is determined on the basis of the level of government in question. We will use the redesigning of procedures and information technology to strengthen the prevention of risk in fiscal activities and management, the control of such risks when they do arise, and oversight and remedies after risks have been brought under control. We will effectively prevent risk in every type of fiscal activity as well as any risk that might pose a threat to keeping government clean.
Fellow Deputies,
The successful implementation of the 2015 budgets is of vital importance. Under the leadership of the CPC Central Committee with Comrade Xi Jinping as General Secretary, we will follow the guidance of Deng Xiaoping Theory, the important thought of Three Represents, and the Scientific Outlook on Development, willingly accept the oversight of the NPC, and seek comments and suggestions from the CPPCC National Committee with an open mind. We will devote ourselves to reform, work with diligence, strive to successfully implement this year's budgets and complete our work on fiscal reform and development, and contribute to promoting steady, healthy economic development and social harmony and stability.
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