China's tax revenues beat out GDP growth
2016-03-22In the first half of this year, China reported fiscal revenue of 4.33 trillion yuan ($637.21 billion), up 27.6 percent year-on-year, according to statistics from Ministry of Finance. The growth rate is far more than the GDP growth in the same period. "This is a common phenomenon. Sometimes the year-on-year growth rate of fiscal revenue is even as high as some 30 percent," said Zhang Xiaojing, a senior economist with the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences. "I think taxes are a bit too high, both for individuals and companies. The taxes total about one fourth of the revenue of my company," said an employee at a State-owned enterprise. Tax revenues accounted for nearly 90 percent of the fiscal revenue. The fast growth of fiscal revenue has aroused some concerns with the tax burden on business owners. "Whether taxes are too high or not depends on the ratio of fiscal revenue to total GDP," People's Daily cited Jia Kang, director of the Institute for Fiscal Science Research under the Ministry of Finance (MOF). Jia also pointed out that taxes are lower in China than most other countries. According to the IMF's Government Finance Statistics 2008, the tax level of 24 developed countries is 45.3 percent on average, and for 29 major developing countries is 35.5 percent. The number in China was 25.4 as of last year. An official from MOF said that the fast year-on-year growth in the first half of this year is the main reason for the big increase of the fiscal revenue. In the first half, manufacturing industry, real estate, and automobile sales all reported a rapid growth. The source added that the fiscal revenue in the first half of 2009 shrank 2.4 percent year-on-year. The low base number, therefore, has contributed to a big increase of the fiscal revenue in the first half.
