Reporter: Li Xuanzhang, Chen Xu
On October 12, the Information Office of the State Council held a press conference to introduce the relevant situation of "intensifying the countercyclical adjustment of fiscal policy and promoting high-quality economic development".
At present, the pressure on the "three guarantees" of ensuring basic people's livelihood, wages, and operation in some localities is increasing, and all parties are very concerned about this. In response to the relevant situation of the "three guarantees", the reporter of "Daily Economic News" asked at the press conference: What measures has the Ministry of Finance taken to support local governments to hold the bottom line of the "three guarantees" at the grassroots level since the beginning of this year?
In response to a question from a reporter from the "Daily Economic News", Lan Fo'an, Minister of Finance, said that doing a good job in ensuring the basic livelihood of the people, wages, and operation at the grassroots level, that is, the "three guarantees" that are often said, are the basic requirements for protecting the vital interests of the people, and are also the basic functions of finance. In 2024, the Ministry of Finance will continue to improve the "three guarantees" management system covering budget preparation, budget implementation, dynamic monitoring, and emergency response, and promote the smooth operation of the "three guarantees" at the grassroots level.
Study and formulate a list of "three guarantees".
In response to a question from a reporter from the "Daily Economic News", Lan Foan further pointed out that the Ministry of Finance has taken four main measures to support the "three guarantees":
The first is to strengthen the financial guarantee of the "three guarantees" at the grassroots level. In 2024, the central government will arrange a transfer payment budget of more than 10 trillion yuan to local governments, and urge local governments to sink their financial resources to the grassroots level, and give priority to arranging the "three guarantees" budget in full. The grassroots level mentioned here is mainly at the county level.
The second is to establish and improve the working mechanism. In accordance with the principle of "county-level-based, municipal-level assistance (bottom-up), provincial-level support, and central incentives", we will consolidate responsibilities layer by layer, and make detailed emergency response plans for "three guarantees" risks.
The third is to enhance the ability of treasury guarantees. Strengthen the dispatch of treasury funds in difficult counties and districts to ensure the payment needs of the "three guarantees".
Fourth, strengthen the monitoring of local financial operations. At present, relying on the integrated budget management system, all budget units and grass-roots financial operations in the country can monitor the amount of treasury funds and the progress of the "three guarantees." Push the "three guarantees" risk reminders to all localities on a monthly basis, and urge the localities to respond and deal with them in a timely manner.
Lan Foan emphasized that on the whole, the current grassroots "three guarantees" are generally stable and locally tight. According to the calculation of the total financial resources of the grassroots level in the country, the bottom line of the "three guarantees" is guaranteed. Taking 2023 as an example, the expenditure of the "three guarantees" at the grassroots level will account for about 50% of the available financial resources, and if other rigid expenditures are added, it will account for about 80% of the available financial resources. The increasing pressure of the "three guarantees" in some areas is mainly affected by the slowdown in the growth of fiscal revenue, the decline in land transfer revenue, and the debt burden of local governments.
In view of the future work of the "three guarantees", Lan Foan introduced that in the next step, the Ministry of Finance will continue to take pragmatic and effective measures, study and formulate the list of "three guarantees", actively build a long-term mechanism, and build a solid bottom line of the "three guarantees" at the grassroots level. Specifically, there are the following five measures:
The first is to consolidate the responsibilities of all parties. Local party committees and governments at all levels are the main body of primary responsibility for the "three guarantees" in their respective regions, and they should regularly study and improve safeguard measures. All functional departments are mainly responsible for the implementation of the "three guarantees" policy in this field, and establish a horizontal coordination mechanism with the financial department to form a joint work force.
The second is to enhance local financial resources. In conjunction with the annual budget arrangement, we will continue to increase the financial transfer payment from the central government to local governments. This year, a debt limit of 400 billion yuan has been issued to the local government to supplement the comprehensive financial resources by using the debt balance limit, which is of positive significance to the guarantee of the "three guarantees." clean up and standardize special transfer payments, optimize the structure of transfer payments, and increase the proportion of financial transfer payments; At the same time, it is necessary to expand local tax sources, appropriately expand the authority of local tax administration, and increase local independent financial resources.
The third is to strengthen the dispatch of treasury funds. We will continue to track the operation of local revenues and expenditures and the guarantee of treasury funds, and provide appropriate support to localities where treasury funds are tight by dispatching funds in advance. Supervise and urge the provincial financial departments to strengthen the monitoring of treasury funds, enhance the ability of grassroots treasury funds, and give priority to meeting the needs of the "three guarantees" expenditure.
Fourth, alleviate debt pressure. We will make greater efforts to replace the stock of implicit debts of local governments, and continue to allocate a certain amount of the annual new local government special debt limit to supplement the financial resources of government funds to support local governments in resolving debt risks.
Fifth, strengthen dynamic monitoring. Promote the establishment of an information-based and intelligent monitoring system covering the whole process of the "three guarantees", dynamically capture potential risks, carry out early warnings and prompts in a timely manner, and achieve early detection and early disposal of problems.
Earnestly promote high-quality development
In this regard, Vice Minister of Finance Wang Dongwei said that in recent years, the Ministry of Finance, together with relevant departments, has established and improved the special bond management policy system, guided the local government to improve the quality of special bond projects, and continued to play an important role in driving the expansion of effective investment and stabilizing the macroeconomic market.
Wang Dongwei introduced that since 2020, a total of 18.7 trillion yuan of new special bonds have been arranged, supporting about 130,000 government investment projects, and 3.9 trillion yuan of new special bonds have been arranged this year, which is the largest year in the past.
Wang Dongwei said that the Ministry of Finance focused on better playing the role of government investment, and conscientiously organized the allocation and issuance of special bonds.
On the other hand, we will reasonably arrange the quota of special bonds in other regions to promote the continuation and completion of projects under construction and the implementation of major national strategic projects. The second is to guide local governments to speed up the issuance and use of special bonds, strengthen scheduling, and report the progress of the issuance and use of special bonds on a ten-year basis. As of the end of September, 3.6 trillion yuan of new special bonds had been issued, accounting for 92.5% of the annual quota.
Wang Dongwei said that on the basis of doing a good job in the above work, the next step is to study and expand the scope of use of special bonds, improve the management mechanism, maintain the intensity and rhythm of government investment, reasonably reduce financing costs, and effectively promote high-quality development. Specifically, there are three points:
First, expand the scope. It is necessary to study and improve the management of the list of investment directions of special bonds, increase the areas used as project capital, and expand the scope of use to the greatest extent. At the same time, it is necessary to make good use of special bonds to support the acquisition of stock commercial housing for affordable housing and support the healthy development of the real estate market. In addition, we will reasonably support the infrastructure of forward-looking and strategic emerging industries to accelerate the development of new productive forces.
Second, strong mechanisms. Study and improve the project management mechanism, open up the "green channel" of projects under construction, promote the effective connection between project planning and reserve and construction implementation, accelerate the issuance and use of special bonds and the progress of project construction, accelerate the formation of physical workload, and effectively play the leading role of government investment.
Third, strict management. It is necessary to improve the whole life cycle management of "borrowing, management and repayment" of special bonds, strengthen the supervision of bond capital expenditure, and implement the responsibilities of project departments and project units. It is necessary to improve the asset ledger of special bond projects, manage project assets by category, and ensure the balance between government liabilities and project assets. In addition, it is necessary to explore the early repayment of special bonds, study the establishment and improvement of the debt repayment reserve system, and ensure the source of repayment of special bonds.
National Business Daily