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Finance Minister Xiang Huaicheng, who is attending the on-going 16th National Congress of the Communist Party of China (CPC), has pledged to implement a forceful financial policy in the years to come to back the nation's building of a well-off society.
"We will continue to improve and optimize the revenue system to give full play to its regulating function for income distribution and create a fairer environment for competition among various kinds of enterprises," he said.
The reform in tax and fees will be advanced steadily, particularly in rural areas, to standardize the order of government revenue distribution and lighten the burden on farmers, enterprises and society, he said.
China will continue to improve its tax assignment system and payment transfer system to rationalize distribution relations between the central and local governments in a bid to promote coordinated economic development between different regions and pave the way for the implementation of the develop-the-west strategy.
In line with the development of a market economy, said the minister, the structure of financial expenditures will be readjusted and optimized, and investment in agriculture, science and technology, education, health, public security, social security and environmental protection be enhanced.
Reform in fiscal expenditure management and a separate management of revenue and expenditures including the institutional budget, distribution system of State treasuries and government purchases will be deepened to standardize financial administration and increase the efficiency of financial capital.
"Meanwhile, we will use financial leverage to improve macroeconomic control and adopt appropriate fiscal policies in accordance with changes in domestic and international economy to ensure a stable economic growth," Xiang said.
In addition, he said, functions of the fiscal policy should be transformed to meet changes in government functions and financial departments will further improve their management in accordance with laws and rules.
According to the minister, in the past 13 years since the Fourth Plenum of 13th CPC Central Committee, the central government has taken up a series of adequate financial policies and carried out reforms in the financial revenue system, contributing to the fastest and most steady revenue growth in the history of the country.
In 2001, State financial revenue reached 1,638.6 billion yuan (US$197.4 billion), 4.6 times more than that in 1990.
(China Daily November 14, 2002)
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