Finance ministry the first to unveil 2017 budget

Diplomacy to account for up to 84% of spending

The Ministry of Finance (MOF) on Friday disclosed its financial budget for 2017, becoming the first government agency to do so.

MOF expected revenue and expenditure this year to remain constant at 14.13 billion yuan ($2.05 billion).

According to the MOF, up to 84 percent of its expenditure in 2017 will be spent on diplomatic activities such as donations to international organizations. Spending on public services will account for about 12 percent of the ministry’s expenditure in 2017.

The MOF also plans to spend about 60.67 million yuan on “three public expenses,” including overseas business trips, vehicle purchase and maintenance, as well as official receptions.

Compared with the past year, the MOF has cut about 786,000 yuan on the three public expenses, following the central government’s decision to cut official reception spending in general.

Zhu Lijia, a professor at the Chinese Academy of Governance, told the Global Times on Friday that it’s wrong to think that the “three public expenses” are the fewer the better, and that essential spending on work-related activities should be guaranteed.

Following MOF, 104 government agencies will all soon disclose their financial budgets for 2017, the Xinhua News Agency reported on March 10.

About 15 departments’ spending plans in 2017 will be kept confidential.

Another report from Xinhua on Friday noted that government agencies will make their spending known to the public in a more detailed way.

They will publish the spending plans on their own websites and on the central budget and final accounts public platform which was established in 2016. These moves will facilitate supervision from the public, according to Xinhua.

The government agencies will also use graphics and words to explain their spending such as government purchase and operational fees, the Xinhua report noted.

According to a statement published on the central budget platform website on March 31, the Chinese government is expected to spend about 9.57 trillion yuan in 2017. The government spent 9.03 trillion yuan in 2016.

Zhu said that the Chinese government’s efforts to make financial expenditure information open have improved year by year since the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China held in late 2012.

“The information has been a lot easier to understand for the public,” he said.

But he noted that the scope of government information that can be disclosed is not large enough.

“I think the government should disclose as much information as possible,” he noted.