Bloomberg:
According to the work report, this year's fiscal plan focuses on using funds from state-owned enterprises and local government debt to boost consumption and spending. However, the expenditure on infrastructure was relative slow last year because of insufficient good infrastructure projects. How shall we ensure the effective spending of these funds and ensure the problem of last year be well addressed? And how can you keep these policies and measures consistent, and whether it can promote investment in fixed assets?
Xiang Dong:
Thank you. The questions you raised are mainly related to finance. Regarding the government's expenditure mentioned in the work report, there are two major expenditures this year: tax reductions and refunds. I covered the former one, and I'd like to invite Mr. Liu to elaborate briefly on the latter.
Liu Rihong:
As Mr. Xiang said, my colleague covered some of your questions. I would like to add some more details for your reference.
In terms of government expenditure, we will first increase overall spending. According to the report, government expenditure in 2022 is budgeted to increase by more than two trillion yuan over the previous year. You may be curious about the reasons for such an increase. One of the significant reasons is to facilitate tax refunds and cuts. Our practices in recent years prove that tax and fee cuts are crucial measures to innovate macro adjustment and the fairest, most inclusive, and most effective method to support market entities. Statistics show that since the 13th Five-Year Plan was launched, the volume of newly-issued tax and fee cuts has totaled 8.8 trillion yuan, effectively reducing the burden of enterprises. Although policies on tax and fee cuts continue to take effect, China's public finance has achieved sustainable and stable operation due to the growing vitality of market entities and the development of new tax-related market entities. From 2013 to 2021, new tax-related market entities have paid 4.76 trillion yuan in tax. This demonstrates the policy effect of tax and fee cuts.
One of the major reasons for expanding government expenditure this year is to increase transfer payments to local governments, help carry out tax and fee cuts, and ensure that policies concerning 2.5 trillion yuan of tax refunds and cuts can be well implemented.
Another reason is to help expand effective investment. In 2022, 3.65 trillion yuan of special bonds will be issued, similar to the previous year. In the meantime, 640 billion yuan will be allocated for investment in the central government budget, 30 billion yuan more than the previous year. Therefore, there is substantial growing space for China's effective investment. As for the investment in infrastructure you mentioned, indeed, the growth rate in this regard has been comparatively low in recent years, and we will ramp up investment this year. However, our efforts to increase investment are not made in an extensive manner as we did in the past. What we expand nowadays is an effective investment, applied to projects urgently needed for economic growth and people's livelihoods. For example, a bond issued this year will focus on supporting major engineering projects of the 14th Five-Year Plan and those concerning the weakness of society and people's livelihood. With the implementation of the funds, effective investment will be continuously leveraged, which will effectively support the stable operation of the Chinese economy.
Thank you.
