Financial subsidies reflect the public nature of the social insurance fund budget.
Since the implementation of the new budget law, the general public budget, government fund budget, state-owned capital operation budget and social insurance fund budget have been integrated into one, forming a unified budget system. The four sub-budgets have their own characteristics, especially the social insurance fund budget, which has specific service targets and serves the people more pertinently.
However, the four sub-budgets are all open, and it is in this sense that the social insurance fund budget has received financial subsidies. Article 3 of the new implementation regulations stipulates: "The budget of social insurance fund should achieve sustainable operation on the basis of actuarial balance, and the general public budget can appropriately arrange funds to supplement the budget of social insurance fund according to needs and financial situation." This provision shows the important position of general public budget in the budget system.
For a country with an aging population and a large number of elderly people, the sustainability of the social insurance fund budget is a big problem. In recent years, the general public budget has increasingly subsidized the social insurance fund budget. In 20 19, the income of the national social insurance fund was 831521300 million yuan, the expenditure was 74,740.78 million yuan, and the balance was 8411350,000 yuan. At that time, the income of the national social insurance fund came from financial subsidies (that is, the general public budget). An aging population means an increase in the proportion of pensioners and an increase in medical expenses. The former increases the expenditure pressure of the basic endowment insurance fund, while the latter increases the expenditure pressure of the medical insurance fund. The level of medical expenses is related to the progress of medical technology. Some diseases are incurable, but with the progress of technology, they can be cured, or they can live with diseases, and the corresponding medical expenses will increase, and the corresponding pension expenses will also increase. Medical technology is different from many other technological advances, and medical expenses may rise instead of falling in the short term. Moreover, medical insurance expenditure is also related to social progress. Some diseases are not covered by medical insurance. With the progress of society, medical insurance expenditure will increase. When the budget sustainability of social insurance fund encounters difficulties, either reform the social insurance fund system or increase financial subsidies. The new implementation regulations provide the necessary institutional support for increasing financial subsidies.
The control of treasury funds at all levels belongs to the financial department of the government at the same level.
Treasury management is the most striking. Some people have taken pains to find a solution to the relevant disputes in the new implementation regulations, but in fact, the reform of the treasury management system has already set the general direction as early as the reform of the treasury centralized payment system in 2000.
How to control the treasury funds seems to be the most controversial, but in this regard, Article 59 of the new budget law clearly stipulates: "The control of treasury funds at all levels belongs to the financial department of the government at the same level. Unless otherwise provided by laws and administrative regulations, no department, unit or individual has the right to freeze, use or otherwise control the state treasury funds without the consent of the financial department of the government at the same level. "
Moreover, Article 93 of the new budget law also stipulates the accountability of personnel, that is, if governments at all levels and relevant departments and units freeze, use or otherwise control the funds that have been put into storage in violation of the budget law, the directly responsible person in charge and other directly responsible personnel shall be given demotion, dismissal and dismissal according to law.
Article 93 of the new implementation regulations clearly stipulates freezing, using or otherwise controlling treasury funds in violation of the budget law, pointing to six acts: freezing and using treasury funds without the consent of the relevant financial departments of the government; Departments and units that collect budgetary revenues deposit the collected taxes and other budgetary revenues into accounts other than the state treasury in violation of regulations; Handling the disbursement and refund of funds without the consent of the financial department of the relevant government or the institution authorized by the financial department; Diversion of treasury funds for other purposes; Delaying and occupying state treasury funds; Occupy the budgetary funds allocated by the government finance department.
Undoubtedly, these regulations make the management of treasury funds more operable and can better promote the modernization of treasury management.
Establish and improve the risk prevention mechanism of local debt
The problem of local government debt has always attracted much attention.
Article 35 of the new budget law stipulates: "Part of the funds necessary for construction investment in the budgets of provinces, autonomous regions and municipalities directly under the Central Government approved by the State Council can be raised by issuing local government bonds and borrowing debts within the limits set by the State Council. The scale of borrowing debts shall be reported by the State Council to the National People's Congress or the NPC Standing Committee for approval. The debts borrowed by provinces, autonomous regions and municipalities directly under the Central Government in accordance with the quota issued by the State Council shall be included in the budget adjustment plan at the corresponding level and reported to the Standing Committee of the people's congress at the corresponding level for approval. Borrowed debts should have a repayment plan and a stable source of repayment funds, which can only be used for public welfare capital expenditures and not for recurrent expenditures. "
Article 43 of the new implementation regulations details this, namely: "The balance of local government debt is subject to quota management. The government debt limits of all provinces, autonomous regions and municipalities directly under the Central Government shall be reported to the State Council for approval by the Ministry of Finance according to factors such as the debt risk and financial situation of each region, and taking into account the needs of national macro-control policies, within the total limit approved by the National People's Congress or its Standing Committee. The balance of government debts of all provinces, autonomous regions and municipalities directly under the Central Government shall not exceed the limit approved by the State Council. "
Article 35 of the new budget law also stipulates: "Unless otherwise provided by law, local governments and their subordinate departments shall not provide guarantees for the debts of any unit or individual in any way." The illegal guarantee of local government was once a prominent problem in the field of local debt risk management. The provisions of the new budget law have blocked this loophole and strengthened the debt risk management of local governments. The new implementation regulations clearly define the limit of local government debt balance, even if the concept of large-scale debt limit is used, including general debt limit and special debt limit.
Article 45 of the new implementation regulations stipulates how the financial departments of provincial governments manage local debts; "The government that accepts re-loans and re-loans from lower-level governments should include re-loan debts in the budget management at the corresponding level", which highlights the full-scale budget management of government debts at all levels. "The financial departments of local governments at all levels are responsible for the unified management of local government debts" highlights the main responsibility of local debt management.
Article 47 of the new implementation regulations stipulates: "The Ministry of Finance and the financial departments of the governments of provinces, autonomous regions and municipalities directly under the Central Government shall establish and improve the debt risk assessment index system of local governments, organize and assess the debt risk status of local governments, give early warning to areas with high debt risks, and urge them to resolve debt risks." This is the new budget law "the State Council establishes local government debt risk assessment and early warning mechanism, emergency mechanism and accountability system. The refinement and expansion of the Measures for the Supervision of Local Government Debt of the State Council Finance Department is beneficial to the whole process management of local government debt risk.
It seems that tax refund should be clearly classified as transfer payment.
There is still room for improvement in the details of the new implementation regulations. The treatment of "tax refund" is an example. Let's first look at how reality works. According to 20 19 final statement of central-local transfer payment, central-local transfer payment includes general transfer payment and special transfer payment. There are "tax refund and fixed subsidy" in general transfer payment.
According to the definition of Article 9 of the new implementation regulations, general transfer payments include: balanced transfer payments; Financial assistance to old revolutionary base areas, ethnic minority areas, border areas and poverty-stricken areas; Other general transfer payments. We can understand "tax refund" as one of other general transfer payments.
However, in Articles 12 and 13 of the newly implemented regulations, tax refund and transfer payment are stated side by side. Article 12 stipulates: "The term" transfer income "as mentioned in the first paragraph of Article 27 of the Budget Law refers to the tax refund and transfer payment from the higher level, the income from the lower level, the transferred funds and the government's free assistance that is included in the transfer income according to the provisions of the Ministry of Finance."
Article 13 stipulates: "Transfer expenditure includes payment of higher-level expenditure, tax refund and transfer payment to lower levels, transfer payment funds, and free assistance to non-subordinate governments included in transfer expenditure according to the provisions of the Ministry of Finance." Articles 33 and 34 also juxtapose tax refund and transfer payment. Obviously, the four provisions of the new implementation regulations do not regard tax refund as a transfer payment.
Since the tax-sharing reform of 1994, the relationship between tax refund and transfer payment has gone through a process. Initially, the tax rebate was a transfer payment from the central government to the local government. Then, the tax refund is listed separately and is not used as transfer payment; Later, the tax rebate and transfer payment were put together, and in practice, the central government's tax rebate and transfer payment were juxtaposed; Later, transfer payments included tax rebates. Judging from the recent classification of transfer payments, it seems that the new implementation regulations have not fully absorbed the reform results in this regard.
Theoretically, tax rebate is a financial transfer from one level government to another, which fully conforms to the definition of transfer payment, so it is tenable to classify it as transfer payment. There is no need to juxtapose tax refund and transfer payment.
(Author Yang Zhiyong is a researcher at the National Institute of Economic Strategy)