Finance Minister Xie Xuren vowed yesterday to increase spending on social welfare while further acting to restrict officials' lavish spending on entertainment, amid continued robust growth in fiscal revenue.
The mainland's fiscal revenue rose 30.5 per cent, year on year, to 6.67 trillion yuan (HK$8 trillion) in the first seven months of this year, meeting 74.4 per cent of the government's annual revenue target.
In the same period, public spending grew 29.7 per cent to 5.14 trillion yuan, or 51.3 per cent of the annual target. Xie attributed most of the rapid increase in revenue to the country's robust growth, but added that he expected fiscal revenue growth to slow down.
The healthy growth in fiscal revenue through July continued a trend that has seen revenue outpace growth in economic output and household incomes for years.
But Xie said the government was spending more on social welfare this year. He would expand a pilot pension insurance programme in rural areas to cover 60 per cent of the country's rural population.
He added that the government would tighten restrictions on official spending on banquets, overseas travel and government vehicles. Those expenses are collectively known as san gong, and they are a well-documented source of corruption among officials, resulting in widespread discontent and a storm of public criticism against the government.