China's Finance Minister Xie Xuren Wednesday reported to the ninth session of the Standing Committee of the 11th National People's Congress (NPC), China's top legislature about the government's fiscal status.  These numbers are consistent with what was released before.

In 2008, China's total fiscal revenue was 6,133.035 billion yuan, up 1,000.857 billion yuan from 2007, or 19.5%.  Total expenditure was 6,259.266 billion yuan, up 1,281.131 billion yuan over 2007, or 25.7% higher year on year.  The central government revenue was 3,362.693 billion yuan and expenditure was 3,633.493 billion yuan, up 17.5% and 22.8% respectively.  The central government deficit was 180 billion yuan.

In the first five months of this year, total fiscal revenue fell 6.7 percent to 2,710.867 billion yuan, accounted for 40.9% of the total expected revenue, among which, tax revenue fell 9.4% to 2,404.651 billion yuan, and non-tax revenue increased 21.2% to 306.216 billion yuan. 

The ministry attributed the revenue decline to the following: shrinking business profits due to the slow economy; active fiscal policies including tax cuts and increased export tax rebates to boost economic growth; and negative CPI and PPI.

Fiscal expenditures climbed 14.5% to 460.801 billion yuan in May. The cumulative expenditure from January to May amounted 2,249.698 billion yuan, up 27.8%, or 488.717 billion yuan from the same period of last year.  Expenditures jumped 93.5% on environmental protection, 89.9% on agriculture and forestry, and 80% for transportation.

Xie stressed that in the future the government effort would be to ensure the stable growth of investment, actively implement structural tax reduction policies to ease the burden on business and consumers, maintain frugality and strictly control expenditures by reducing government vehicle purchases, reception fees and official travel, boost efficiency and deepen fiscal system reform, advance resource tax reform, and refine the consumption tax system.