Dec 11, 2012
Translated by Pang Lei

The Chinese government collected a total of 10.9 trillion yuan in fiscal revenue in the first eleven months of this year, an increase of 11.9 percent over the amount collected during the same period last year, according to data released by the Ministry of Finance earlier today.

This is more than the 10.38 trillion yuan of fiscal revenue collected over the whole of 2011.

The rate of growth was down 14.9 percentage points from the 26.8 percent pace of growth registered over the same period in 2011.

The Ministry of Finance attributed the sharp decline in the pace of growth over the 11-month period to a slow down in the pace of economic growth, a fall in industrial profits, an easing of the rate of price increases and structural moves to reduce taxes in some areas.

The ministry also noted that the rate of revenue increases seems to have increased in the fourth quarter after slowing from 14.7 percent year-on-year growth in the first quarter, to 10 percent in the second quarter and 8.1 percent in the third quarter. In October and November, revenue was up 13.7 percent and 21.9 percent respectively year-on-year.

The ministry said that although the increase in the pace of revenue growth was related to a recent strengthening in retail spending, industrial value added, fixed-asset investment, industrial profits and other economic indicators, it is also related to the fact that the economy began to slow in the fourth quarter of last year and the pace of revenue growth began to slow markedly last October, year-on-year growth is thus likely to appear stronger as it comes off a weaker base.

Fiscal outlays for the same January to November period reached 10.5 trillion yuan, an increase of 17.9 percent.

Over the first eleven months of 2012, China's central government spent close to 1.7 trillion yuan, an increase of 15.8 percent year-on-year. Local government spending over the same period came to 8.8 trillion yuan, up 18.3 percent.

By the end of November, central government outlays had already reached 91.5 percent of the budgeted spending for 2012. Local government spending had reached 83.5 percent of what was budgeted at the start of the year.

Traditionally, government spending in China peaks in December as ministries race to spend their allocated budget for the year.

Compared to the same period of 2011, spending on education and health care increased significantly.

Total spending on education for the first 11 months of the year was 1.6 trillion yuan, an increase of 32.9 percent on the same period last year and health care spending reached 602.7 billion yuan, an increase of 19.7 percent when compared to the Jan-Nov period last year.

According to the announcement, revenue from government-managed funds (the vast majority of which come from land transfer fees – the sale of long-term leases on state-owned land) has fallen over the past 11 months.

The central government collected 292 billion yuan from various government-managed funds over the first 11 months of the year, an increase of 14 percent.

Local government revenue from funds on the other hand is 450 billion yuan short of last year's revenue, falling to 2.8 trillion yuan, a fall of almost 14 percent.

A fall in land transfer fees is behind the drop, with revenue from land transfer fees totaling 2.3 trillion over the first eleven months of the year, down 17.5 percent or almost 500 billion on last year.

Last year, the government received 3.3 trillion yuan from land transfer fees, an increase of 22 percent compared with the previous year. This year, the government budgeted for revenue from land transfer fees to come in at less than 3 trillion yuan.

Total fiscal revenue for November was 787 billion yuan, an increase of 141 billion yuan on last November or 21.9 percent.

Of this figure, 367 billion yuan in fiscal revenue was collected by the central government, up almost 18 percent from last November. While local governments collected 420 billion yuan in revenue, an increase of 25.6 percent when compared to the same period last year.

Total national fiscal revenue includes both tax and non-tax revenue.

The data shows that in November, tax revenue totaled 676 billion yuan, an increase of 21.1 percent.

The high rate of growth in November is related to the sharp fall in revenue that occurred last November and the amount of tax collected in November is actually much less than the 938 billion yuan collected in October and the average monthly tax revenue for this year.

Value-added tax raised 220 billion yuan, up by more than 16 percent year-on-year.

Business tax revenue was up 28.6 percent year-on-year to 114 billion yuan, with business tax revenues from the real estate sector up by almost 60 percent.

A fall in imports in November helped drive revenue from import taxes down. Revenue from taxing exports fell by 11 percent due to tax rebates offered to exporters over the preceding period.

111.1 billion yuan in non-tax revenue was collected in November, a year-on-year increase of 23.6 billion yuan, or 27 percent. Central non-tax revenue of 19.8 billion yuan was collected in November, a year-on-year increase of 14.7 billion yuan. 91.3 billion yuan in local non-tax revenue was submitted in November, a year-on-year increase of around 10 percent.

In November, fiscal expenditure climbed to 1.2 trillion yuan, an increase of 6.7 percent on the same month of last year.

Of this total national figure, the central government spent just short of 150 billion yuan, an increase of 4.4 percent year-on-year and local government spending reached almost 1.1 trillion yuan, an increase of 7 percent on the same period last year.

Links and Sources
Ministry of Finance: 2012年11月份财政收支情况
Economic Observer Online: Total Government Revenue May Reach 15 Trillion Yuan in 2012