Chinanews, Beijing, Dec. 21 – In 2007, the state fiscal revenue has improved rapidly. An official from the Ministry of Finance (MOF) recently predicted that China's national fiscal revenue would reach a new scale of more than 5.1 trillion yuan this year.

 

The latest information shows that from January to November this year, the state fiscal revenue reached 4.818 trillion yuan, up 33.5% from the same period last year, while fiscal expenditure amounted to 3.708 trillion yuan, increasing by 25.2% from last year. Much of the fiscal revenue was spent in areas closely related with the well-being of the Chinese people, including education, medical services and social security programs, amounting to an increase of more than 30% compared with last year.

 

In 2008, Chinese government will continue to follow a prudent fiscal policy by reducing budget deficit and cutting down the long-term treasury bonds to a moderate degree. Meanwhile, the government will add more input to improve the production and living conditions in rural areas and to better protect the ecological environment, said a person in charge at MOF.

 

Starting from the next spring semester, Chinese finance departments will allocate more money to subsidize the compulsory course books projects at both national and local levels. In 2008, China will implement the new rural cooperative medicare system on a comprehensive scale and raise the medical insurance participation fee by 50 yuan per person. At the same time, the government will try to make the new rural cooperative medicare sytem cover the unemployed residents in cities.

 

In order to enourage companies to cut emissions and conserve energy, the government will cut down or exempt the income taxes of those companies that have some energy conservation projects or equipment investment projects that are in line with state policies. For companies that invest in equipment used in emission reduction or energy conservation, the state will deduct the input part of their value-added taxes.