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; stre

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.