Page 10 - REPORT ON THE EXECUTION OF THE CENTRAL AND LOCAL BUDGETS FOR 2018 AND ON THE DRAFT CENTRAL AND LOCAL BUDGETS FOR 2019

vast majority of imported medicine including anticancer drugs, and lowered
import tariffs for whole vehicles and auto parts, as well as for some non-durable
consumer goods and manufactured goods. China’s overall tariff level has been
lowered from 9.8% in 2017 to 7.5% in 2018.
Taking further steps to tidy up regulations for the levying of charges on enterprises

A number of administrative charges were abolished, including the
processing fee paid by first-time applicants for citizen identity cards. We
lowered the required payments to some government-managed funds such as the
major water conservancy projects fund. Further, we extended the validity period
of the policies of temporarily reducing social insurance premiums and lowering
the proportion that enterprises contribute to the housing provident fund. These
efforts to reduce taxes and fees led to a relief of burdens by around 1.3 trillion
yuan over the year.

 We achieved significant success in the three critical battles.

Strengthening prevention and control of local government debt risk
Actions were taken to impose ceilings on local government debt and
incorporate them into budget management, and the work on issuing local
government bonds to replace outstanding debt was basically completed. We
supported the issuance and use of special bonds by local governments and
attained the goal of issuing 1.35 trillion yuan of special bonds two months ahead
of schedule. We have improved management measures to put under strict
control the risks related to special bonds within the statutory debt ceilings. We
rolled out measures for the disclosure of local government debt information and

guided local governments in the orderly release of information regarding the
remaining balance of debt ceilings, bond issuance and arrangements for fund
usage, and repayment of principal and interests. We further refined oversight
and regulatory policies for hidden debt-related risks facing local governments,
and further strengthened risk prevention and control at the supply end of funds
and at the source of project construction. Intensifying oversight and
accountability and setting up mechanisms for lifelong accountability and the
retroactive investigation of liability, we organized investigations into illegal and
regulation-breaking borrowing by some cities, counties, and financial
institutions, publicly exposing those cases. We improved the statistical and
monitoring mechanisms and gave timely warnings about debt risk, and we
urged local governments to perform their due responsibilities within their
geographical jurisdiction and succeeded in forestalling systemic risks.

Providing strong support in the fight against poverty
The central government allocated 106.095 billion yuan to subsidize local

poverty alleviation funds, an increase of 20 billion yuan, or 23.2%, over 2017.

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