China Finance Minister Lan Foan said in an Oct. 1 article the ministry will
prioritize stabilizing grassroots fiscal operations and preventing and resolving
local government debt risks. Planned measures include moving the consumption tax
collection point downstream and gradually devolving it to local governments,
reforming local surtaxes and supporting local efforts to expand tax bases;
piloting integrated, coordinated use of transfer payments to give localities
more autonomy to meet needs; strengthening treasury cash management and
monitoring to ensure the "three guarantees" are not disrupted; accelerating
reduction of existing hidden debt while strictly investigating new hidden debt,
false debt conversions and other violations to consolidate debt-reduction gains;
and orderly reform of local government financing platforms to remove government
financing functions and ban new or repurposed financing platforms.
