By IANS,
Beijing : Dragged down by the economic downshift and tax cuts, China’s fiscal revenue continued to grow at a slower pace in the first two months of 2013, the finance ministry said Wednesday.
The country’s fiscal revenue increased 7.2 percent year-on-year to 2.24 trillion yuan ($357 billion), slower than the growth rate of 13.1 percent in the same period last year, Xinhua.
The ministry attributed the slower growth to a weakening economy, structural tax cuts and slowing imports.
The central government collected 1.08 trillion yuan in fiscal revenues in January and February, up 1.6 percent year on year, while local governments saw fiscal revenues grow 12.9 percent to 1.16 trillion yuan.
Local governments raked in more taxes from rising property transactions, the ministry explained.
Of the total fiscal revenues, tax revenues reached 1.96 trillion yuan, up 5.9 percent from a year earlier, but the growth rate was down 3.6 percentage points from the same period in 2012.
Fiscal revenues in China include taxes, administrative fees and other government income, including fines and income from state-owned assets.
Revenues from value-added taxes increased 8 percent year on year to 481.2 billion yuan in the first two months, while those from business taxes went up 14.1 percent to 334.9 billion yuan.
Corporate income tax revenues gained 24.7 percent year on year to 425.2 billion yuan.
Individual income tax revenues dipped 3.8 percent to 135.6 billion yuan, as taxes on yearly bonuses and rewards mainly given in February, when the Spring Festival was celebrated this year, will be collected in March, the ministry said.
Meanwhile, the country’s total fiscal expenditures climbed 15.7 percent year on year to 1.61 trillion yuan in January and February, according to finance ministry data.
Spending on people’s well-being saw steady increases, with spending on education up 12.7 percent to 229.8 billion yuan and spending on healthcare and public health services up 20.5 percent to 75.3 billion yuan.
Central government spending on tax rebates and transfer payments given to local governments in the first two months totalled 949.7 billion yuan, up 8.3 percent year on year, while local governments saw outlays rise 16.9 percent to 1.36 trillion yuan, the data showed.
Impacted by the faltering global economy and a cooling domestic property market, the world’s second-largest economy recorded its slowest annual growth rate since 1999, expanding 7.8 percent in 2012.