Chinese city ‘sold’ same plot of land 18 times to inflate fiscal revenue: watchdog
Central Commission for Discipline Inspection says Nanning used tactic to mask budget strains
The party’s top anti-corruption watchdog said the tactic allowed the city government to artificially shore up its fiscal revenue by 2.83 billion yuan (US$416.2 million) in 2024.
“Captivated by quick gains, some authorities engaged in accounting gimmicks to reflect substantial rises in fiscal revenue, masking actual budget strains”, the CCDI said in a document released late last month.
Nanning had previously transferred 15 parcels of land to three city-government-owned enterprises for free. The plots were developed, with infrastructure and public-welfare facilities, by 2024, but local officials fabricated contracts and documents that changed the free transfers into sales ranging from 840,000 to 500 million yuan per parcel, the commission said.
Nanning’s finance bureau said the city’s land sales revenue tumbled to roughly 13.2 billion yuan in 2024, just over one-fifth the figure recorded in 2020. But local authorities still set a target for 17.7 per cent annual growth in land-related fiscal revenue in 2025.
“It fully showed that some local authorities … held a grossly misplaced understanding of political achievements,” the CCDI said.