SHANGHAI’S fiscal revenue soared 24.3 percent from a year earlier to 21.77 billion yuan (US$3.4 billion) in August, led by the hefty contributions from corporate and personal income taxes, the Shanghai Municipal Finance Bureau said yesterday.
The income tax paid by companies surged 264.1 percent compared with the same period last year and was the biggest contributor with an increase of 4.26 billion yuan to the fiscal revenue. Personal income tax was next, jumping by 25 percent annually.
From January to August, the municipal government’s fiscal revenue totaled 261.17 billion yuan, up 26.4 percent annually.
Analysts expect a slowdown in the growth of the city’s fiscal revenue for the rest of the year as its economy is likely to cool due to unfavorable external conditions.
Meanwhile the raising of the personal income tax threshold from 2,000 yuan to 3,500 yuan on September 1 exempted millions of people from paying taxes, which will reduce the government’s income.
Nationwide revenue at the local government level hit 350.95 billion yuan in August, an annual rise of 33.4 percent. The central government’s revenue totaled 403.68 billion yuan, a rise of 35.1 percent from a year earlier.
The governments at both levels have been getting revenue that outpaced the rise in the Consumer Price Index.
The CPI, a key gauge of inflation, gained 6.2 percent in August from a year earlier, slower than July’s 6.5 percent, the highest level in 37 months.
The past eight months had seen a 30 percent year-on-year increase in its fiscal revenue which totaled more than 7.43 trillion yuan, almost 83 percent of the target of 8.9 trillion yuan for the whole year set by the central government, the Ministry of Finance said.
Of the fiscal revenue collected, government spending in social security and welfare accounted for 7.6 percent of the gross domestic product in 2009 while 2.7 percent was invested in medical services and education took 4.52 percent, according to the report by the Central University of Finance and Economics.
Source:ShanghaiDaily