The new Budget Law comes into effect in 2015, thus the requirements of that law must be strictly complied with in preparing the central and local government budgets for this year.

First, key items in the budgets that, according to the stipulations of the new Budget Law, are subject to examination and approval by people's congresses, need to be reported in detail, including the implementation of the previous year's budgets, arrangements for this year's budgets, government debt, and transfer payments.

Second, the emphasis must be on reporting on budgeted expenditure and fiscal policies so as to actively invite oversight.

Third, available funds need to be put to good use. The central and local governments will go further to sort out carryover and surplus funds, keep newly added carryover and surplus funds under strict control, and make use of recovered funds in key areas of economic and social development.

Fourth, efforts to carry out overall planning for budgets need to be intensified. Revenue and expenditure from local educational surcharge and ten other funds will be transferred from government-managed funds budgets to general public budgets. And the proportion of funds to be transferred from the budgets for state capital operations to the general public budgets will be further increased.

Fifth, budgets need to be made more detailed. Budgets for basic expenditures at the central level and for central government departments in the draft budgets need to be detailed down to the specific economic category. On the basis of having itemized budgets for transfer payments by project, such budgets also need to be detailed to specific regions. The overall size of budgets compiled by finance departments for other departments and projects will be further cut back, and we will make more funds for budgetary items available at the start of the year.

Sixth, we need to make progress across the board in releasing budgets. With the exception of cases in which classified information is involved, any department that receives government appropriations must make its budgets open to the public.

We will continue to implement proactive fiscal policy in 2015 and, as appropriate, increase the intensity. This will be mainly reflected in the following four areas:

First, we will increase the deficit by an appropriate amount and put to use funds carried over from previous years to increase the intensity of spending. Government deficit for 2015 is projected to be 1.62 trillion yuan nationwide, an increase of 270 billion yuan over last year, with increases in both the central government deficit and the local government deficit. This means that the deficit to GDP ratio will come to approximately 2.3%, up 0.2 percentage points on last year. In addition, the special debt of local governments that has been placed under the management of government-managed funds budgets will be increased by 100 billion yuan; and the central government will use 112.4 billion yuan of funds carried over from previous years to further increase the intensity of spending.

Second, we will implement structural tax cuts as well as reductions to fees across the board to strengthen our support for the real economy. As we push forward with the reform of the tax system, we will review and standardize tax relief and other preferential policies, and channel great energy into completing our work to replace business tax with VAT in all industries, thus further eliminating duplicate tax charges. We will make sure measures to reduce fees across the board are fully implemented, reduce or waive payments into government-managed funds as well as administrative charges for small and micro businesses, and continue to do away with unauthorized charges in order to relieve the burden on these enterprises.

Third, we will strengthen efforts to make use of available government funds, and use funds more effectively. We will act in line with the requirements of the new Budget Law to develop an accurate picture of carryover and surplus funds, and in putting these funds to use we will favor areas such as public services, infrastructure, and improving quality of life. We will review special fiscal accounts, set ceilings for working capital in the budgets and budget stabilization funds, and carry out fiscal planning on a rolling basis for the next three years to prevent new funds from becoming idle.

Fourth, we will keep government investments at a certain scale, and make good use of the guiding role of such investments. This year the central government will earmark 477.6 billion yuan for investment in infrastructure, which is 20 billion yuan more than the previous year. The orientation of government investment will be adjusted and improved, with funds being used primarily for major state projects, trans-regional and cross-watershed investment projects, and major projects with strong externalities. We will further reduce investment in competitive areas and on subsidizing small and miscellaneous local projects.

Education

We will carry out the second phase of the action plan for preschool education. Our focus will continue to be on poor areas and schools that are badly built and poorly operated, and support and guidance will be given to local governments to encourage them to increase input into efforts to develop primary and secondary boarding schools in poor rural areas, expand and renovate schools in counties and townships to help them cope with increasing class sizes as more and more students from villages attend these schools, and improve facilities for primary and secondary school students, all with the aim of improving the basic conditions of badly built and poorly operated schools for compulsory education. We will implement the system of government financial aid policies. We will raise the annual government grants for students in secondary vocational schools and regular senior high schools from 1,500 yuan to 2,000 yuan per student. We will continue to implement the quality improvement plan for modern vocational education, and guide and incentivize local governments to step up the pace of work to improve their systems for allocating funds to vocational colleges based on student numbers. In this regard, awards and subsidies will be given to local governments from the central budget based on an evaluation of their respective progress in developing such a system, contribution of financial resources, reform and development in vocational education, and other factors. We will reform and improve the funding mechanisms for institutions of higher learning under the central government so that the cost of education can be shared between the government and students in a reasonable way; and we will encourage these institutions to embrace an internal quality building model of development and cultivate innovative students. We will support the development of local universities and colleges, pushing them to improve quality and helping them bring out their own distinct features. Impetus will be given to international exchange and cooperation in education.

Science and technology

We will put into practice the strategy of innovation-driven development. We will deepen reform in the management of science and technology initiatives (projects and funds) financed by the central government, taking proactive steps to optimize and integrate all types of science and technology initiatives, establishing an open and unified national science and technology management platform, and developing comprehensive, integrated methods for planning and implementing initiatives. We will improve and strengthen the management of research programs and their funding. We will expand the scale of the national seed fund for the application of scientific and technological advances and attract more nongovernmental funds and financial capital to support application. We will establish a national seed fund for investment in business start-ups in emerging industries, offering financial support primarily to innovative enterprises in emerging industries which are still in the embryonic stage, thus generating impetus for new businesses, innovation, and the upgrading of industry by pooling government, nongovernment, and private funds. We will promote the open sharing of scientific and technological resources by establishing a mechanism of subsidizing operators of major national facilities for scientific research and large or costly research apparatus who allow public access to their facilities. We will improve the funding mechanism for research institutes at the central level. We will increase spending on basic research and support efforts that raise our ability to make original innovations. We will give financial support to speed up progress in major national science and technology initiatives. We will improve government procurement policies and measures that support innovation and increase procurement of innovative products. Trials will be launched to test a compensation mechanism for insuring major newly developed technological equipment.

Social security and employment

We will keep to the rate of 10% in raising basic pension benefits for enterprise retirees. In reforming and improving the basic pension system for workers, we will focus on actuarial balance, combining contributions from different sources with funds in personal accounts, so as to close loopholes in the system and strengthen the supporting capacity of the insurance fund.

Medical and health care

We will increase investment in public health services and comprehensive public hospital reform. We will raise annual per capita spending on basic public health services from 35 yuan to 40 yuan, with the entire additional funds in rural areas to be used for purchasing basic public health services from rural doctors. We will increase support for the prevention and control of major diseases. The comprehensive reform of county-level public hospitals will be extended to all counties, and the central government will continue to provide a subsidy of three million yuan per county. The reform of public hospitals in urban areas will be extended to more cities. Efforts will be continued to provide standardized training for resident physicians, with annual subsidies of 30,000 yuan per person from the central government.

Agriculture

We will increase support for implementing the strategy on developing sustainable, ecologically friendly agriculture. The trials for restoring and improving cultivated land contaminated by heavy metals and trials for dealing comprehensively with the over-abstraction of groundwater will both be expanded. We will support efforts to improve the subsoil of cropland, develop eco-friendly tilling, and return plant stalks to fields in order to restore and improve the productivity of the land. We will give greater support to major grain-, edible oil-, and seed-producing counties, and improve the mechanisms for subsidizing major grain-growing areas. We will strengthen the building of farmland irrigation and water conservancy infrastructure and supporting end-use facilities for major water conservancy projects. We will increase investment in comprehensive agricultural development, and work hard to build high-grade farmland.

Ecological conservation and environmental protection

We will go further in encouraging efforts to protect virgin forests, establishing an award and subsidy mechanism for halting logging in areas of natural forest not yet covered by the protective policy, and increasing existing subsidies for those areas of natural forest that already fall under the policy. A further 666,667 hectares of marginal farmland will be returned to forest or grassland. We will go further in improving the financial compensation system for forest conservation and forestry that produces positive ecological impact and the policy on subsidies and awards for the ecological conservation of grassland. We will increase investment in controlling air pollution. We will integrate financial resources to establish funds for the prevention and control of water pollution to help strengthen efforts in this regard, and carry out pilot projects to comprehensively improve the conditions of rivers by covering each river's entire drainage basin. We will establish mechanisms to cover every aspect of efforts to promote the use of new-energy vehicles. We will adjust and improve the uses of existing funds for supporting the closure of outdated production facilities to tackle overcapacity. We will extend to more areas the comprehensive demonstrations for energy conservation and emission reduction based on integrating financial policies, and grant a full package of incentives to eligible provinces. We will deepen reform of the cap-and-trade system for pollution discharge, and expand trials of having provinces situated on the upper and lower reaches of river basins compensate each other for their impact on water quality.

Government-subsidized housing projects

To make sure that all the tasks for this year are completed, we will steadily shift the focus of our efforts from mainly providing physical housing to providing both housing and financial subsidies, thereby subsidizing both homes and home buyers; we will make use of the PPP model and government procurement of services, guiding nongovernmental capital to become involved in purchasing, building, and managing public rental housing; we will actively support the rebuilding of rundown areas in the cities; and we will make good use of available housing. We will develop methods for performance assessment on urban government-subsidized housing projects. We will step up efforts to renovate dilapidated rural housing and coordinate efforts for making rural housing more resistant to earthquakes.

Culture

We will support accelerated development of a modern system of public cultural services, and take steady steps to make the delivery of basic public cultural services increasingly standardized and equitable. We will support implementation of the initiative to make sure Chinese culture is passed on, strengthen the protection of cultural heritage and traditional Chinese villages, and promote the development of folk culture and ethnic minority cultures. We will support efforts to help art and literature to thrive and cultivate cultural talent, and we will put our weight behind ensuring the production of more works of distinction that have depth, contain a positive social message, and demonstrate a human touch. We will support efforts to strengthen the international communication capacity of our key news media outlets, and integrate the development of traditional and emerging media. We will establish a sound system to boost the cultural sector, and accelerate the development of its key industries.

Administration of justice

We will support the establishment of circuit courts under the Supreme People's Court and the establishment of courts in Beijing, Shanghai, and Guangzhou for dealing with intellectual property rights related cases. We will push forward with trials to have provincial governments exercise unified management of and provide funding for the human, financial, and material resources of local courts and procuratorates below the provincial level.

Strengthening national defense and the armed forces

To strive for the goal of building powerful armed forces, we will strengthen the military in all respects so that they are more revolutionary, modern, and standardized; so that they are constantly developing their ability to complete their missions and tasks; so that they safeguard China's sovereignty, security, and territorial integrity; and so that they ensure its peaceful development.

Improving the fiscal and transfer payments systems

We will adjust the mechanism for sharing the increase in export tax rebates. Beginning in 2015, the central government will pay the full sum of the increase in export tax rebates, and will no longer turn the increase in consumption tax over to local governments at a ratio of 1:0.3. This will help build a market that is unified across the country and improve the consumption tax system. We will establish sound mechanisms to link the transfer payments a government receives to the number of people from rural areas who have become registered permanent residents in urban areas within their jurisdiction. We will step up efforts to comb through and rearrange special transfer payments, so that in 2015, the number of items receiving special transfer payments from the central government will be further cut, this time to around one hundred.

Central government spending in 2015 is projected to total 2.5012 trillion yuan, up 10.4%, to which a further 27.9 billion yuan is to be added in funds carried over from previous years. The main expenditure items are arranged as follows:

The appropriation for agriculture, forestry, and water conservancy is 66.062 billion yuan, up 18.6%.

The appropriation for social security and employment is 72.93 billion yuan, up 4.2%.

The appropriation for education is 135.151 billion yuan (including 6 billion yuan carried forward from previous years), up 8.8%.

The appropriation for science and technology is 275.725 billion yuan (including 17 billion yuan carried forward from previous years), up 12.3%.

The appropriation for culture, sports, and the media is 24.921 billion yuan, up 6.4%.

The appropriation for medical and health care and family planning is 11.019 billion yuan, up 22.1%.

The appropriation for energy conservation and environmental protection is 29.125 billion yuan.

The appropriation for transport is 80.689 billion yuan.

The appropriation for stockpiling grain, edible oils, and other materials is 154.638 billion yuan, up 33.2%. This is mainly due to the increases in the subsidies to help pay expenses and interest on loans used for stockpiling grain and edible oils, subsidies for price differences in stockpiling grain and edible oils, and subsidies for making up losses in auctioning stockpiled cotton.

The appropriation for national defense is 886.898 billion yuan, up 10.1%.

The appropriation for public security is 154.192 billion yuan, up 4.3%.

The appropriation for general public services is 100.491 billion yuan.

The appropriation for natural resource exploration and information technology is 29.684 billion yuan.

A total of 4.9 billion yuan which has been carried forward from previous years is to be used for standardizing allowances and subsidies for public servants and implementing performance-based pay for the employees of public institutions.

Central government tax rebates and transfer payments made to local governments will amount to 5.5918 trillion yuan in 2015, up 8.1%, to which a further 84.5 billion yuan is to be added in funds carried over from previous years.

Of this amount, general transfer payments will account for 3.004537 trillion yuan (including 81.5 billion yuan carried forward from previous years), up 12.6%. General transfer payments for equalizing access to basic public services will reach 1.921508 trillion yuan (including 71.5 billion yuan carried forward from previous years), an increase of 14.8%, with transfer payments to some local governments to be increased for their bearing the expenses of implementing the policy of adjusting the salaries of employees of their offices and public institutions. General transfer payments for old revolutionary base areas, areas with concentrations of ethnic minorities, border areas, and poor areas will total 125.565 billion yuan, up 12%. General transfer payments for the basic pension and other purposes will come to 458.184 billion yuan (including 10 billion yuan carried forward from previous years), up 20.1%.

Special transfer payments will come to 2.156434 trillion yuan (including three billion yuan carried forward from previous years), an increase of 8.1%. The principle of either zero-increase or some reduction will be applied to special transfer payments unless otherwise stipulated on in specific policies. The main items that do have increased budgets for special transfer payments include:

First, budgets for education include 32.75 billion yuan in subsidies for renovating rural schools for compulsory education that are badly in need of improvement, up 6.3%; 14.788 billion yuan of earmarked funding for the initiative to strengthen the quality of modern vocational education, up 24.6%; and 40.492 billion yuan in financial assistance and subsidies to students, an increase of 18.7%.

Second, budgets for social security and medical and health care include 36.963 billion yuan in subsidies for entitled groups, an increase of 19.9%; 120.768 billion yuan in living allowances and subsidies for people facing financial difficulties, up 7.1%; 49.804 billion yuan in subsidies for public health services, up 8.7%; and 12.56 billion yuan in subsidies to public hospitals (including 3 billion yuan carried over from previous years).

Third, budgets for energy conservation and environmental protection include 11.55 billion yuan of funding for the prevention and control of air pollution, up 9.5%; 47.85 billion yuan in subsidies for energy conservation and the reduction of emissions, up 40.4%, which is principally because, in accordance with the plan for the reform of oil price-adjusting subsidies, subsidies for petroleum-fueled buses are to be transformed into subsidies for new-energy buses and integrated into the budget for spending on energy conservation and emission reduction; 17.617 billion yuan in subsidies for protecting natural forests, up 21.4%; and 30.865 billion yuan in central government special funding for returning cultivated land to forest, up 8.8%.

Fourth, budgets for agriculture include 20.158 billion yuan in subsidies for agricultural resource and ecological protection, up 12.1%; 15.245 billion yuan in subsidies for the expansion and servicing of agricultural technologies, up 20.9%; 42.756 billion yuan in subsidies for the construction of farmland irrigation and water conservancy infrastructure and water and soil conservation, an increase of 33.5%; and 35.089 billion yuan in subsidies for the forestry industry, up 15.7%.

Fifth, a total of 124.3 billion yuan in earmarked funds will be designated for use in financing government-subsidized housing projects in rural areas, an increase of 9.1%.

According to the scheme approved by the State Council for improving the government budgeting system, in 2015, we will take the following measures to improve the budgeting system for state capital operations.

The proportion of funds allocated from the central government's state capital operations budget to the general public budget will be further increased.

The areas of spending from the central government's state capital operations budget will be clearly delineated: apart from allocations for transferal into the general public budget or for replenishing social security funds, funds will be used primarily to cover expenditures for addressing longstanding problems of SOEs and their relevant reforms, injecting capital into SOEs, and providing them with policy-based subsidies.

Transfer payments to local governments made in the central government's state capital operations budget will be used in supporting SOEs under the central government and enterprises decentralized after 1998 in the coal, non-ferrous metal, defense, and other industries in addressing their longstanding problems and supporting efforts in completing the reform of collectively owned businesses operated by SOEs.

Some state-owned financial enterprises under the central government will be brought into the scope covered by the state capital operations budget.

The budget for revenue of social security funds is prepared taking into account factors including the implementation of the previous year's revenue budget, forecasted economic and social development for the current year, adjustments in social security policies, and plans for work related to social security.

Revenue from insurance premiums is budgeted on the basis of factors including the number of people paying contributions, insurance rates or fixed premium standards, the average pay rate from the previous year, and pay increases. The budget is then determined by combining these factors with the expansion of insurance coverage, the recovery of payment arrears, and so on.

Revenue from government subsidies is budgeted based on government subsidies to social security funds in the previous year and newly added government subsidies in the current year after adjusting for incomparable factors.

It should be noted that according to the revised Budget Law, after the beginning of a new financial year and before the approval of the draft central government budgets by the National People's Congress, arrangements may be made for the following expenditures: carryover expenditures from the previous year; basic expenditures of government departments, project expenditures, and transfer payments to lower-level governments that must be made in the current year, after referring to the amount of budgetary expenditures for the corresponding period of the previous year; expenditures for which payment constitutes a legally prescribed obligation; and expenditures to be used for dealing with natural disasters and other emergencies.

Based on the above stipulations, in January 2015, the central government made expenditures to the value of 751.2 billion yuan from the general public budget. This figure includes 132.9 billion yuan spent at the central level and 618.3 billion yuan in tax rebates and transfer payments made to local governments.