Full text: Report on China's central, local budgets
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E-mail Xinhua, March 17, 2015
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.
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