Government takes up bigger slice of fiscal pie: former tax official  

国税总局原副局长:政府收入占GDP比重44%明显偏高

国家税务总局原副局长许善达7月30日表示，从今年上半年官方公布的数据来看，政府收入占GDP的比重达到44%。如果按照新一轮财税体制改革稳定宏观税负的原则，这一比重明显偏高。[查看全文]

(ECNS) -- China's government income already takes up a relatively large share of GDP, and the country should optimize its fiscal structure to tackle disparities, a former senior tax official said on Wednesday at an economic forum in Beijing.

Government revenue in the first six months accounts for at least 44 percent of the country's GDP, 26.9 trillion yuan ($4.35 trillion), up from 39 percent last year and 31 percent in 2011, according to Xu Shanda, former vice-minister of the State Administration of Taxation.

China's fiscal revenue rose to 7.46 trillion yuan ($1.21 trillion) in the first six months, and the revenue of government funds and social insurance funds reached 2.6 trillion and 1.7 trillion yuan, respectively.

Besides the three types of income, government revenue also comprises the return of state-owned assets, the amount of which is comparatively small, no more than 100 billion yuan.

Xu said the figure (44 percent) is on par with high-welfare countries in northern Europe, where citizens' expenditure on education, medical and housing are covered, but higher than developed economies such as the United States, where it is between 35 and 40 percent.

However, the structure of China's government spending is far from reasonable. One example is the proportion of expenditure on the social welfare system, which is only half of the US' level in 2012.

Xu also said the higher percentage of movement in revenue means less revenue of enterprises and citizens as well as higher taxes on them. He suggested overall research on the structure of government revenue.