Govt boosts public spending
▶ Cuts to official expenses aims to support livelihood
As more Chinese central government departments cut their annual budgets for overseas trips, vehicle use and receptions, expenditure is increasing in key sectors such as the environment and healthcare, which are related to people’s livelihoods.
Chinese central government departments disclosed their budgets for 2019 on Tuesday, 11 days earlier than last year. The number of departments releasing their planned 2019 expenditure rose from 89 in 2018 to 102 this year, the People’s Daily reported Wednesday.
The budgets announced on Tuesday include eight report forms including an income and expenditure summary sheet and a budget sheet for expenses involving overseas trips, vehicles and receptions, what is often referred to as the “three public consumptions.”
These documents reflect the government departments’ overall situation of revenue and expenditure and the financial allocations for them in an authentic and thorough fashion, according to an official with the country’s budget department of the Ministry of Finance.
Many ministry-level departments, including the Ministry of Finance, have made cuts to their 2019 budgets for official expenditure of approximately 3 percent, as stipulated in the Government Work Report Chinese Premier Li Keqiang delivered during the Second Session of the 13th National People’s Congress in March.
The cuts to central government spending are in line with the call from China’s top leaders for governments at all levels to reduce their general spending to cope with smaller fiscal revenue and higher spending in areas related to people’s lives, according to Cao Heping, a professor of economics at Peking University.
“I think the logic is pretty simple: if these agencies save money from making spending cuts, then we can put that money into environmental protection or other areas related to people’s livelihoods,” Cao told the Global Times on Wednesday.
Not all official expenditure will decrease. The Ministry of Ecology and Environment has announced a rise of 666,100 yuan ($99,293) over 2018, and the Ministry of Veterans Affairs, established in 2018, will have larger budget in 2019, some 5.11 million yuan more.
These departments provided explanations for the increased budgets, the Xinhua News Agency said Wednesday. Environmental authorities have more responsibilities which require overseas trips, such as preparing for the 15th Conference of the Parties on the Convention on Biological Diversity, to be held in Beijing in 2020.
The National Health Commission’s 2019 budget for general public hospitals is 5.02 billion yuan, an increase of 36.54 percent on 2018, and will be used to improve standards across public hospitals. Maternity hospitals have a budget increase of 112.37 percent higher over 2018.
In the environmental management sector, the Ministry of Ecology and Environment allocated 69.26 percent of its budget to energy conservation and environmental protection. The budget for environmental monitoring and supervision is 2.97 million yuan, up by 72.78 percent than 2018. And the budget for projects to prevent and address air, soil and water pollution is 405.71 million yuan.