China to post record fiscal revenues in 2004

China's overall fiscal revenue is expected to hit a record high of about $317 bn this year with a bigger-than-expected fiscal surplus.

China's overall fiscal revenue is expected to hit a record high of about $317 billion this year with a bigger-than-expected fiscal surplus, Chinese Finance Minister Jin Renqing has said.

HT Image

Addressing a national fiscal meeting, the minister, however, did not give an estimated growth rate year-on-year, saying only China registered 283.6 billion yuan ($34.58 billion) in fiscal surplus during the first 11 months of this year.

Chinas fiscal revenue exceeded two trillion yuan ($243.9 billion) last year, and China's fiscal deficit for last year stood at 293.4 billion yuan ($35.78 billion) in 2003, the minister said in a report to the Standing Committee of the National Peoples Congress (NPC), country's top legislative body.

The departmental funding for agricultural, social security, education, science undertakings has been increased by big margins, ranging from 14.1 per cent to 31.7 per cent, Xinhua news agency quoted Jin as saying.

On priorities for fiscal arrangements for 2005, he said China would continue to increase funding for the agricultural sector and programmes for farmers, including efforts to reduce tax burdens.

A senior financial official said that the phase-out of the agricultural tax will be done ahead of schedule. Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao promised last year that taxes on the crops of the country's 800 million economically disadvantaged farmers will be phased out within five years.