4) Budgets for social security funds

Revenue into China's social security funds is projected to be 5.178672 trillion yuan, up 7.3 percent. This includes 3.690798 trillion yuan in insurance premiums and 1.259597 trillion yuan in government subsidies. Expenditures through China's social security funds are expected to total 4.84505 trillion yuan, up 10.3 percent. With a projected surplus of 333.622 billion yuan this year, the year-end balance is expected be 6.663089 trillion yuan after the balance from 2016 has been rolled over.

It should be noted that as local budgets are formulated by local people's governments and submitted for approval to the people's congresses at their respective levels, the relevant data is still in the process of being compiled. As such, the above-mentioned projected figures for local revenue and expenditures have been compiled by the central finance authorities.

For a more detailed account of the budgets arrangements related to the above items, please refer to the Report on the Execution of the 2016 Budgets of the People's Republic of China and Its 2017 Draft Budgets in Chinese.

In accordance with the Budget Law, after the beginning of a new budget year and prior to the approval of these draft budgets by the NPC, arrangements may be made for the following expenditures:

-- carryover expenditures from the previous financial year

-- basic expenditures and program expenditures of government departments and transfer payments to lower-level governments that must be made in the current year, after referring to the amount of budgetary expenditures for the corresponding period over the previous year

-- expenditures mandated by law

-- expenditures for dealing with natural disasters and other emergencies

In accordance with the above stipulations, in January 2017, expenditures in the central government's general public budget totaled 984.5 billion yuan, which consists of 165.7 billion yuan spent at the central level and 818.8 billion yuan in tax rebates and transfer payments made to local governments.

III. Fiscal Reform and Development in 2017

1. Tightening and improving macro-fiscal control to help achieve China's objectives for economic growth

A combination of various fiscal policy instruments will be employed, their coordination with monetary and industrial policies will be strengthened, and policies will be made to work better together. We will see that fiscal policies play a guiding role, and will create new ways of using government funds to fully stimulate the enthusiasm of enterprises and individuals and of the central and local authorities. We will strengthen standardized management over the establishment of government investment funds and the wider application of PPP to see that they effectively play their role in encouraging investment from non-government sources. We will better manage expectations, take the initiative to communicate with market entities, and listen to their reasonable demands in order to promptly improve policies and measures. We will work to increase open access to information on policies and increase policy transparency to ensure we are sending clear policy signals to market players. We will work to make policies more implementable and ensure that the intended effect of policies such as cutting taxes and fees is fully unleashed and that individuals and market entities have a stronger sense of benefit.

2. Continuing fiscal and taxation reforms to accelerate the establishment of a modern fiscal system

The budget management system will be improved. We will introduce the revised regulations on the implementation of the Budget Law. We will do more to release budgets and final accounts and improve transparency in public finance. We will continue working on the reform to introduce budget performance administration, taking gradual steps to see that all budgetary funds are brought under performance administration.

We will review and integrate special transfer payments, continue to review enterprise-related special funds, improve the way transfer payments are allocated, strengthen their supervision and oversight, and work hard to ensure that there is no overlapping of projects and no misuse or wasting of funds.

We will deepen the reform to introduce departmental budgets, step up efforts to ensure that central CPC and government departments build project databases, see that budgets are being worked out in greater detail, and make more funds for budgetary items available at the start of the year. We will organize the implementation of pilot reforms to make budgets detailed down to the specific economic category and to prepare government financial statements, and move faster to improve principles on government accounting.

We will carry out reform of the fiscal system and of the way fiscal powers and expenditure responsibilities are shared between the central and local governments. We will move faster to develop a plan on how revenues are to be shared between the central and local governments. We will improve the system of fiscal policies that support the granting urban residency to people with rural household registration living in urban areas and make solid progress in new urbanization which places people at the core.

We will continue working on the reform of the tax system. We will improve and implement the trials to replace business tax with VAT in all sectors of society, and simplify the structure of VAT rates by cutting the number of tax brackets from four to three in order to make the taxation environment more simple, transparent, and equitable. A plan will be drawn up to improve our local tax systems. We will continue to deepen reforms to develop resource taxes and will pilot water resource tax in more areas. In accordance with the principle of tax legality, we will lose no time in preparing the drafts of the tobacco leaf tax law, the tonnage tax law, and the tax law on farmland used for nonagricultural purposes, and we will actively work for progress in legislative work on other taxes. We will formulate regulations on the implementation of the Environmental Protection Tax Law. We will draw up a plan for building an individual income and property database. We will help to accelerate legislation on public-private partnerships.