Chinese province admits to cooking its books
Liaoning governor says many cities and counties across the province massaged economic figures, with some local governments inflating fiscal income by up to 23 per cent
Liaoning province has confirmed long-standing suspicions that some of its economic data, including fiscal revenue, was faked between 2011 and 2014.
“Many cities and counties in Liaoning reported fraudulent economic figures,” governor Chen Qiufa told the provincial legislature on Tuesday, citing a document from the National Audit Office.
“The fake fiscal figures influenced the central government’s economic judgment and accordingly led to a lowering of the size of transfer payments to the province,” he said.
It also meant local residents carried a higher tax burden because a bigger share of the province’s funds went to central coffers, he said.
Citing the audit report, Chen said the inflation of fiscal data by city and county governments worsened each year from 2011.
People’s Daily reported that by 2014, when the falsification of data was at a peak, some governments inflated their fiscal income by as much as 23 per cent.