How to spend nearly two trillion yuan (HK$2.27 trillion) in the next three weeks? That question is likely to generate intense debate in mainland media and internet forums following the revelations over the weekend that the authorities need to rush to spend the budgeted money before the end of the year.
It is known to have been a long-standing practice that at the end of each year, the central and local governments rush to spend budgeted but unused money, leading to rampant misappropriation of taxpayers' money on projects that should not have been funded in the first place, enabling officials to benefit themselves in the forms of new office buildings, cars and cash bonuses.
There is little doubt that mainland financial officials will come out in the next few days and publicly obfuscate the issue, probably arguing that the amount of the money is overstated. Given the opaqueness of the government spending and budgeting process, mainland taxpayers have little clue about how their money is spent.
It is time for the Ministry of Finance to waste no time in giving taxpayers a proper and clear accounting for the two trillion yuan.
There are a million good ways to spend that money. The simplest way could be to divide two trillion yuan by 1.3 billion people to ensure every mainlander has some cash to welcome in the Year of the Tiger.
Seriously, that is what the mainland authorities should have done if they really wanted to boost domestic consumption. It need not be done by giving cash directly to the people, but in the form of raising salaries and cutting taxes.